SAME OLD, SAME OLD?

It can be said that New Labours "ethical foreign policy" expired in the House of Lords in the early hours of a dark and windy night in 2005 at around 2am,  any idea that "we are all in it together" expired in broad daylight live on television something between 12.30pm and 13:30pm  today. In many ways the Conservative dominated Con Dem Government’s decision to scrap the 50p tax rate for high-earners should not been much of surprise, they have in many ways simply reverted to type.

One principle that George Osborne clearly does not subscribe to is that of progressive taxation. The Con Dems plan from 2013 onwards to cut a further £10 billion pounds worth of welfare. Rather more alarmingly it can be said that cutting taxes for high earners whilst slashing support for those less fortunate has merely highlighted the fact that the Westminster seems to have become a plaything of the rich elite and their friends.

We live in one of the most unequal societies in the developed world as a direct result of thirty years of Tory-New Labour government in London. One of the main reasons why the 50p tax rate hasn't worked is because enough of those who should be paying it have been able to use various tax dodges. If you believe in a fair society then everyone needs to pay their fair share. As a society we need to crack down on tax havens, tax avoidance and off-shore finance so that everyone pays a fair and correct amount of tax, not to mention cutting back on pension perks for high earners. .

SAYING WHAT YOU MEAN AND MEANING WHAT YOU SAY?

When Conservative Minister Iain Duncan Smith told people in the south Wales town of Merthyr Tydfil they have become static and should seek work in Cardiff and that unemployed people "get on a bus" to find work - there were echo's from the 1980's of the then Tory minister Lord Tebbit's "get on your bike" comments. Understandably these have ruffled more than a few feathers.

Now I suspect that this was not a cheap throw away line (on a BBC 2 Newsnight interview) this is what the Tories really think, this was the moment when the mask slipped, and despite the cuddly "Call me Dave" Cameron makeover this is what the hard-line and not so hard-line Tories actually think.

A measure of proof of this could be the way that most of the Tory backbench MP's were gleefully cheering (if not baying) in the House of Commons by way of vocal support during the Spending Review statement (which also announced details of the fact that over 400,000 public sector workers services were going to be dispensed with) last Wednesday. There were some serious shades of Ra! Ra! We are going to smash the Oiks!!! So much for one nation Conservatism.

One question I would like to ask is how is the National Assembly supposed to help people get to the work on the coastal belt from the valleys - whether by car or bus, by road or rail - when the cuts will reduce capital spending, which is money to be invested in new roads, rail (not to mention hospitals and schools) is going to be cut by 41%.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST... PERHAPS?

Just when you thought it was all over it turns out that another MP is in trouble over his expenses. Bill Wiggin (a Conservative MP) has been told to repay £4,294 and apologise to House of Commons after he over-claimed on his expenses. The Standards and Privileges Committee (the Westminster Parliament's sleaze watchdog) has told him to say sorry for wrongly designating his second home in London as his main home. The Committee made reference to his “serious” breaches of the rules and “disappointing” failure to co-operate with the inquiry by providing invoices. Just to rub some salt into his wounds he may lose his job in the Chief Whip's Office and lose the Conservative Party whip...watch this space!

SAME OLD, SAME OLD

There are some reliable constants in life, for example I used to have an old car that would in wet weather (don't ask me why?) regularly refuse to start, usually when I was trying to go to work. Eventually enough of my friends and family said get rid of it and after some soul searching I did. One of those constants is that not so deep down, under the surface, when you scratch a Tory that they are still died in the wool Thatcherite's. Despite all the spin, the hype, the waffle, the green wash and the layers of gloss paint duly applied by Cameron - that's what they are - hating the poor and the disadvantaged  and  deeply envious of the questionable wide-boys in the City. News from Scotland suggests that this may be the case - a Conservative candidate in next year's Scottish Parliamentary election has resigned after allegedly saying Scots were "so thick" for hating Margaret Thatcher. Car wise, since getting rid of my old car I have not looked back, I wonder how long it will be before the Scottish people finally get rid of the last vestiges of the Conservatives...and then don't look back.

ITMA

He's at it again - that David ("Call me Dave") Cameron, the Con Dem Prime Minister (at Westminster) currently running the risk of becoming the new ITMA ('It's That Man Again') with his repeated talk of dread and dire public sector cuts. He has only  managed to go and stir things up so much with his mantra of public sector spending cuts that he has united the Political Leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in opposition to his proposed cuts. With Alex Salmond, Carwyn Jones and Peter Robinson who all want the proposed cuts phased in over a longer period, they all signed the following declaration of opposition.

Basically the leaders of the three devolved administrations have said the coalition's cuts are "too fast and too deep" and may put the economic recovery at risk. They said "The devolved administrations believe that the proposed approach to public spending reductions by the UK government runs the risk of delivering significant economic and social harm and urge the UK government to reconsider its proposals."

This is quite an achievement for PM Cameron, I wonder what he will do next?

REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION...

With David ("Call me Dave") Cameron desperately trying to inject some momentum into a pretty lacklustre campaign, where he has succeeded in losing a ten point lead that he had previously maintained for some two years, it's worth by-passing the "We are the NICE Party Honest? Spin" to remember who is actually paying the piper. 

Until 2002, it was Lord Ashcroft who (then at least) actually gave donations to the Conservative Party under his own name. From 2003, donations came through Bearwood Corporate services, a small company whose headquarters are a service address at a firm of accountants in Southampton. He also runs Flying Lion, a private airline. His wife, Susan Anstey, is an active Tory donor.

The Times (1st March 2010) published a short guide to the money donated by Lord Ashcroft, his companies and his relations:

Lord Ashcroft

2001: £6,996 cash and £51,750 non cash
2002: £22,980 non cash

Lord Ashcroft for visit for Liam Fox to Oman and Saudi Arabia in 2006: £3,200

Bearwood

2003: £27,000 cash
2004: £274,063 cash plus £9,269 non cash
2005: £667,165 cash plus £28,291 non cash
2006: £59,136 cash plus £444,619 non cash
2007: £275,000 cash plus £1.42m non cash
2008: £300,000 cash plus £1.3m non cash
2009: £0 cash plus £329,858 non cash

Bearwood to "Conservatives for Change" in 2002/3: £24,000

Flying Lion

2006 2 trips, to Khartoum and Prague £19,819
2009 3 trips, to US, Qatar and China £20,393

Just to make things interesting it does not stop here...

Susan Anstey (Lady Ashcroft)

2003: £5,100 cash plus £5,777 non cash
2004: £9,350 cash plus £76,382 non cash
2005: £7,000 non cash
2006: £20,860 cash plus £51,850 non cash
2007: none
2008: £263,000 cash plus £600 non cash
2009: £5,000 cash plus £124,520 non cash

Susan Anstey to David Cameron leadership campaign in 2005: £20,000
Susan Anstey to Steve Norris campaign: £75,000

Bearwood total since David Cameron came in (Q1 2006 to Q4 2009): £4.13 out of £89.5 million (4.6 per cent)

A couple of questions, firstly, is this called representation without taxation? And can poor (figuratively rather than literally) old Lord Ashcroft get his money back when David ("Call me Dave") Cameron fails to deliver the goods for the previously agreed price? Or at least reclaim his investment through the courts under trades descriptions - as he must have thought he was buying a political party not a political road traffic accident?

OUTSTANDING!

Outstanding - check the others out at: http://www.mydavidcameron.com

A PARLIAMENT OF WHORES!

The Sunday Times (21st March) sting that netted a former Labour cabinet minister (amongst others), who happily boasted about how he used his government contacts to change policies in favour of businesses, should come as no surprise to anyone with an eye to what goes on the what has best been described as this current 'parliament of whores' some members of which are busy selling themselves for personal profit.

The New Labour member in question was good old Stephen Byers, the former trade and transport secretary, he was secretly recorded offering himself “like a sort of cab for hire” (for want of a better phrase) for up £5,000 a day. He also suggested bringing Tony Blair to meet clients. Byers was among several politicians recorded by an undercover reporter posing as a company executive looking to hire MPs for lobbying work.

The Sunday Times names:

• Patricia Hewitt, a former health secretary, who claimed she helped to obtain a key seat on a government advisory group for a client paying her £3,000 a day.
  

• Geoff Hoon, the former defence secretary, offered to lead delegations to ministers and told the reporter that he was looking to turn his knowledge and contacts into “something that frankly makes money”. He said he charged £3,000 a day.

• Margaret Moran, the Luton MP who was forced to pay back £22,500 in expenses, boasted that she could ring a “girls’ gang” of colleagues on behalf of clients. Among those she named were: Jacqui Smith, the former home secretary; Hazel Blears, the former communities secretary; and Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour party.

The investigation and the interviews were undertaken as part of a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches programme in which 13 Labour MPs and seven Conservatives were approached. The uncomfortable disclosures should raise further questions about the relationship between the large number of MPs leaving parliament next month and their contacts who remain in government.

Now while this should be grimly embarrassing for Gordon Brown's failing New Labour Government, it should be doubly embarrassing for the Conservatives. As all of this comes about after David ('Call me Dave') Cameron, the Conservative leader, recently said that lobbying was the next political scandal waiting to happen.

He should know some investigative journalism by The Times (25th September 2009) revealed that 28 prospective Conservative candidates who have reasonably good chances of becoming Tory MPs were actually working as lobbyists or public relations consultants on behalf of businesses and other interests.

The Times has revealed that over a quarter of them got their jobs after being selected to fight seats. A number have put their hands up to admit that they had set up meetings for clients with Conservative Shadow ministers, MPs and officials. Others said that they provided advice on the party’s direction and some admitted to lobbying Tory Frontbenchers on behalf of clients.

At least one fifth of his 150 parliamentary candidates who are likely to get freshly elected will have worked in the nicely lucrative field of public affairs or communications. Ironically, The Times notes, only 7 Labour and 3 Lib Dem parliamentary candidates (with a chance of being elected) will have had jobs in public relations or communications.

Concerns within the troubled depths of the Conservative Party may have prompted action from Francis Maude, the Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, who last week suggested that lobbyists may face statutory regulation if they did not volunteer more information on clients and consultants, he went on to say:’ “Greater openness and transparency is needed to help ensure high standards in public life” ‘, I think that the jury may still be out on that one…amongst the Tories, but perhaps not amongst the electorate.

These people (New Labour or Conservative) are so cut of from reality that they think that this sort of behaviour is acceptable - it might be to them and within their obviously pretty limited social circles, but it's not acceptable to most people, especially the voters. We need strict rules to restrict the activities of former elected members in relation to lobby, at a very basic level no one should be able to use the knowledge that they have accumulated while engaged in public service.

For at the end of the day, public service is actually what being an MP is actually about, not using ones position to line your pocket. Former MPs should not be able to get a job that is engaged in lobby activity for a minimum of 5 years after ceasing to be an MP. The bottom line being go get a real job!

BOUGHT AND SOLD...

Until 2002, Lord Ashcroft gave donations to the Conservative Party under his own name. From 2003, donations came through Bearwood Corporate services, a small company whose headquarters are a service address at a firm of accountants in Southampton. He also runs Flying Lion, a private airline. His wife, Susan Anstey, is an active Tory donor.

The Times (1st March 2010) published a short guide to the money donated by Lord Ashcroft, his companies and his relations:

Lord Ashcroft

2001: £6,996 cash and £51,750 non cash
2002: £22,980 non cash

Lord Ashcroft for visit for Liam Fox to Oman and Saudi Arabia in 2006: £3,200

Bearwood

2003: £27,000 cash
2004: £274,063 cash plus £9,269 non cash
2005: £667,165 cash plus £28,291 non cash
2006: £59,136 cash plus £444,619 non cash
2007: £275,000 cash plus £1.42m non cash
2008: £300,000 cash plus £1.3m non cash
2009: £0 cash plus £329,858 non cash

Bearwood to "Conservatives for Change" in 2002/3: £24,000

Flying Lion

2006 2 trips, to Khartoum and Prague £19,819
2009 3 trips, to US, Qatar and China £20,393

Just to make things interesting it does not stop here...

Susan Anstey (Lady Ashcroft)

2003: £5,100 cash plus £5,777 non cash
2004: £9,350 cash plus £76,382 non cash
2005: £7,000 non cash
2006: £20,860 cash plus £51,850 non cash
2007: none
2008: £263,000 cash plus £600 non cash
2009: £5,000 cash plus £124,520 non cash

Susan Anstey to David Cameron leadership campaign in 2005: £20,000
Susan Anstey to Steve Norris campaign: £75,000

Bearwood total since David Cameron came in (Q1 2006 to Q4 2009): £4.13 out of £89.5 million (4.6 per cent)

Fascinating... is this called representation without taxation?

Monmouthshire Meals on Wheels Service

Whether you call it an 'efficiency saving' or a 'cut' Monmouthshire County Council's (MCC) plan to increase the costs of meals (by 20p) and to reduce staff numbers will hit the county's most vulnerable residents the hardest as the Meals on Wheels service faces cuts of up to £45,000. Either way it is unacceptable as for many older residents in Monmouthsire the meals on wheels service is a real lifeline. Sadly such behaviour is pretty typical for MCC which over recent years has been busy robbing Peter to pay Paul merely to try to balance the books. MCC needs to think long and hard about these proposed cuts.

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

Here we go again, same old Tories, trying to sell the public something they already own. This time, unlike the Trains, energy companies, phone system, BP, etc they plan to sell 'poor people' shares in banks that they already own, well at least have already paid for(and will keep paying for some time). The Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne, now plans to sell the public discounted shares in state-owned banks under a "people's bonus" plan.

In a Sunday Times (21st February 2010) interview, Mr Osborne said the measure would be a reward for the £850bn of public money used to prop up failing financial institutions. The Tories plan to target young people and people on low incomes with special extra discounts. This has more than a faint whiff of desperation as the Tory lead in the polls may well have crashed. Mr Osborne told the Sunday Times: "The bankers have had their bonuses. We want a people's bank bonus for the people's money that was put into these organisations."

One does hate to point out that we already own some of the banks, it's just that the banks and the New Labour Government keep forgetting it. This desperate desire to privatise, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Lloyds Banking Group, does appear to have an air of desperation about it, mind selling cheap under valued shares will be nothing new to a Tory Government, that's what they did last time, which certainly helped their chums in the City line their pockets.

SAME OLD TORIES

Some people have all the luck, or at least the connections. After leaving his job as Conservative MP for Bracknell, Andrew MacKay, a former aide to David Cameron, will start work as an international consultant and strategic adviser for the firm, which lists HSBC and Danone among its clients in Britain. MacKay, who was forced to quit Parliament over his misuse of expenses.

Only last week he was asked to repay more than £31,000 in allowances, he will join Burson-Marsteller, one of the world's biggest communications firms. This news comes barely two days after Mr Cameron promised a crackdown on lobbyists in Westminster. David Cameron, the Conservative leader said the £2 billion lobbying industry "tainted" politics and was the "next big scandal" in Parliament.

So much for the new Conservative moral high horse - I wonder if there are any 'swords of truth' going cheap?

THE FANTASTIC DR FOX

Oops - even as David ('Call me Dave') Cameron considers tightening up on the rules to prevent former ministers using their accumulated knowledge to make a financial killing in private business once out of office, the Times (9th February 2010) has revealed that his own Shadow Defence Minister, (Dr) Liam Fox, has received and accepted a donation of £50,000 (on the 26th January 2010) from a venture capitalist who bought a company that supplies military equipment, last week.

In his defence, if you will pardon the pun, the Shadow Defence Minister has stated that his private office has been supported for some five years by this venture capitalist – so far donations to the Conservative Party from the same source have reached a total of £125,000. Dr Fox as recorded in the Register of Members Interests stated that the donation as accepted “in my capacity as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence”.

Now while it is a recognised fact that the Conservatives are very much into tradition, well there is sadly a tradition of people using their acquired knowledge from alleged public service to enrich themselves and people buying influence in the corridors of power are as old as the hills, but that does not make it acceptable.And last time the Tories tried it, it ended in tears, prison sentences and the surgical removal of duly inserted swords of truth...

A PRETTY UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENT

Wales is pretty unique in many ways, both good and bad; we have membership of a decidedly unenviable yet small club of European nations, especially when it comes to the provision of electrified railways, along with Albania and Moldova, Wales does not to possess a single mile of electrified railway. While only 33% of the rail network is electrified (some of which pre dated the start of World War II) when compared to 100% in Switzerland, 73% in the Netherlands and 57% in Germany.

When the plans to electrify the rail line from Bristol to were unveiled in 2009, and Plaid discovered that Wales did not feature, so it was only natural that Plaid kicked off about it. Some serious negotiations followed and Plaid, and Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, Deputy First Minister, worked exceptionally hard to ensure that the draft of the scheme which originally proposed leaving out the Wales section of the network by terminating the electrification at Bristol, was duly amended so that electrification work would push as far west as Swansea.

Personally, I would have gone one step further and asked Westminster to start the electrification process from the Swansea end of the line, because I trust New Labour about as far as I could through a grand piano, one handed up hill in a heavy driving sleet against the strong wind. That thought aside, we with the prospect of a New Labour defeat at the next election, what about a potential Tory commitment to the project? Well we do have Nick Bourne, waxing lyrical about improving public transport in Wales, which if nothing else might be interpreted to suggest that some of the Tories may have shifted in their opposition to any positive thoughts about Wales.

Mr Bourne, in his blog says;

"Similarly, supportive of a green agenda, will be a commitment to enhance existing rail services in Wales. I believe strongly that we need, once resources allow, a high speed rail link to Swansea from Paddington. This underpins the union as well as being of immense economic and social significance for Wales and the west of England. As a priority we need to see what the cost of this is and when it can be reasonably delivered.

Additionally we need to look at opening new stations, improving existing rail services and possibly opening or re-opening rail lines.

I have always been a strong supporter of rail. Once it may have looked like romantic quixoticism, now happily it makes social, cultural and economic sense as well, and contributes to saving the planet.

That is why I am keen, as is the Party, to look at ways of enhancing rail services in Wales."

Now this all sounds very good, very sensible, very inspirational, etc but – not quite true, as far as the Conservatives in London are concerned. Meanwhile back in October 2009 at the Tory party conference, Theresa Villiers, the Tory Shadow Transport Secretary has a very different idea on proposed plans to finally begin the electrification of the main line between London and Swansea, which were outlined by Lord Adonis ,the New Labour Transport Secretary, in The Times (23rd July 2009) on by stating that it was not possible to give a “cast iron guarantee”.

The depressing impression that you get is that the Tories are going to pursue their clearly stated intention of hacking the hell out of the public purse, by pursing traditional Thatcherite polices of ‘slash and burn’ when it comes to capital projects in an effort to rapidly reduce the borrowing deficit which has been made worse by the best part of 30 years of what could be described a ‘relaxed’ regulation of the banking sector, which led us to the banking crisis.

All our efforts may yet come to nothing if, the Tories win power in London power in May – with a fresh agenda that aims to specifically make serious cuts in capital projects. Our own experience tells us that when the Tories are in power, public services (and ironically military spending – there was a hard review of defense expenditure prior to the Falkland’s War, which effectively gave a green light to the Argentineans to invade) have been dramatically cut in order to try to reduce the size of the state.

Wales needs a modern rail service, with smooth connections to European markets for passenger and freight and with UK Government trying to persuade wants people to make less use of their cars and trying to cut carbon emissions, electrification of the railways is the way to go – a win, win. We can't let the Tories block Wales' rail electrification that way Wales will lose out twice over.

HERE WE GO AGAIN...

Here we go again - collective parliamentary noses in the trough. The Westminster Parliament's website has published hundreds of thousands of pages of new claims from 2008-09 totalling more than £10 million. It may come as little surprise to more cynical observers that many soon to be retiring MPs have continued to squeeze the system despite pretty vocal public displeasure at the widespread abuse of the second-home allowance.

The cream of the current crop (so far) appears to be one Quentin Davies, the Labour MP for Grantham & Stamford, who slipped in an invoice in February for repairs to a bell tower and roof at Frampton Hall, his castle / mansion in Lincolnshire. The defence minister, who previously defected from the Tories (in 2007), was only reimbursed for 25% of his claim after it was ruled that he had exceeded the £24,006 annual maximum.

The Times points out that his claim would have exceeded the average pay of an army private, which is £20,449.

Some three months later (according to the Times) he then wrote to the authorities claiming that he had never intended to use public money to maintain the bell tower. Oddly enough this letter was sent some ten days after newspapers began to print (leaked) details of expenses.

The hopefully soon to be former MP was quoted as saying that it was "unfortunate" that a single invoice was issued for repairs to both his roof, which he regarded as a legitimate claim, and the bell tower, which he now says was not.

The Times reveals that claims, for April 2008 to June 2009, showed some 60 MPs had claimed the annual maximum of £24,006, including the Shadow Chancellor (George Osborne), whose submitted claims accidentally exceeded the upper limit, with the average MPs claim under the second-home allowance was £18,270.58.

Roll on Poling Day...