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It's George Osborne's mistake

"George Osborne likes to say that he is clearing up mistakes made by Labour," said Ed Balls, shadow Chancellor, addressing Labour members at the Stevenage Constituency Party's Garden Party. "But he raised the VAT rate to 20%. That was not Labour's mistake. He made heavy first year cuts in council spending. That was not Labour's mistake. He is cutting too far and too fast. That is not Labour's mistake."

Ed Balls, who is the champion for the East of England, was at the Stevenage garden party on 3 September 2011: he is pictured here with our constituency party chair, Clyde Millard. Also there were Yvette Cooper, the shadow Home Secretary, and Richard Howitt, MEP for the East of England. Whilst most of the afternoon was just a very enjoyable garden party, we did take a little time to hear Richard Howitt and Ed Balls speak. Richard Howitt is pictured (right): on the left of the picture is Richard Henry, chair of the Stevenage constituency party.

Ed also emphasized how important it would be at the next election to win back the marginal seats lost in the East of England, such as Stevenage. Without them, it would be impossible to form a government, however well the Party did in its Labour heartlands.

4 September 2011

Lister Hospital -
final stage of expansion to begin

The transformation of the Lister Hospital into the main acute hospital in the area began under the Labour government. Overall, £150m is being spent. The first three stages are well under way and now the final stage will begin.

The Surgicentre, the new maternity unit and the multi-storey car park will all be open by the end of this year. The new emergency department, ward block and theatre unit will be complete in 2013.

The hospital will then offer state of the art facilities, in surroundings which will benefit patients and staff. The changes will also deliver efficiency savings of £600,000 per month.

Become a member of the Foundation Trust

At the same time, under Labour legislation, the hospital is well on the way to becoming an NHS Foundation Hospital. In anticipation of this, you can become a member, giving you the right to elect members of the Trust board - or even put yourself forward as a board member.

This is the nearest to democratic control of the hospital that we are going to get. So, sign up as a member now.

Go to www.enherts-tr.nhs.uk/member-area to find out more and to sign up.

14 August 2011

Time for Plan B, George

First, the International Monetary Fund, which usually takes a harsh line on government spending, says that Britain's finances are at "significant risk". If conditions deteriorate further, in their view "significant loosening of macroeconomic policies" will be necessary, possibly a temporary cut in VAT - just as Ed Balls has been suggesting.

Then, the respected National Institute for Economic and Social Research says that there will be "no meaningful recovery this year". Further spending cuts now would only make things worse, in their view. "Fiscal policy is too tight amd a modest loosening would improve prospects for output and employment," they say.

On top of this, Robert Chote,the head of the Office for Budget Responsibility, set up by George Osborne himself, has admitted that the Chancellor will have to downgrade his growth forecast in his autumn statement. This will be his his fourth downgrade since he took over from Alistair Darling. 

"George Osborne must now recognise that his tax rises and spending cuts which go too far and too fast have choked off last year's recovery," says David Hanson, Labour's shadow Treasury Minister (above). "He has left us in a weak position if things now go wrong in the eurozone and America."

4 August 2011

The real pension problem
is in the private sector

"Employers have deserted and employees are left on their own to take ...massive, changing risk," says Lord McFall. If something is not done, "the taxpayer will have to fork out many billions of pounds decades hence."

Lord Mc Fall, who is a former Labour minister, chaired the Workplace Retirement Income Commission, which has just reported. (You can read their report here.)

He talks of the "flight from defined benefit schemes", which we highlighted in our earlier item on pensions. Many private sector employees will find, when they reach retirement, that they have little or nothing to add to an inadequate state pension.

This was not always the case. In 1967 there were twice as many private sector pension scheme members as public sector, almost all in defined benefit schemes. By 2006 the number in the private sector pensions schemes had fallen by 55%, mainly in riskier, less adequate defined contribution schemes.

The Labour government took action to provide a universal workplace pension and from 2012 most workers over 21 will be automatically enrolled. However, the Commission estimates that between 5 and 9 million people will not be covered, either or age grounds or because they opt out. They face a "bleak old age", according to the Commission, who also say that the contribution rate for the new pension is inadequate.

Many have claimed that it is unfair that public sector pensions are better than those in the private sector. It is clear from this report that what is unfair is that private sector employers have withdrawn from taking responsibility for their employees' retirement and will leave the taxpayer to take up the burden.

4 August 2011

Botched reform of public sector pensions

Last Thursday, teachers, border guards and others went on strike over threats to their pension entitlement. “The Conservative-led Government has badly mishandled the whole process,” says Ed Miliband. They are “botching reform” and he said that he understood why teachers were so angry with them. Nevertheless, before the strike he had urged the unions to try to settle this at the negotiating table.

Lord Hutton’s report, he said, “sets out sensible starting points for negotiations”, but he castigated the government for slapping a 3% surcharge on pension contributions without negotiation.

The Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, said that public sector pensions were "unaffordable". When it was pointed out that the Hutton Report showed costs going down, the Economic Secretary to Treasury, Justine Greening, said that they were "untenable", but Lord Hutton does not use this word either.

They then said that they were "unfair", because the ordinary taxpayer did not get so good a pension. This is because most private sector employers managed to give up "defined benefit" pension schemes for new employees some years ago, largely because their employees did not have unions to fight for them.

Lord Hutton's report does not recommend destroying good schemes as private employers have done. He calls for a defined benefit schemes that "deliver adequate levels of income", ranging up to 80% of salary for the lowest paid.

David Bell, parliamentary spokesperson for North East Hertfordshire Labour Party, says that he was initially outraged by Ed's failure to back the unions in protecting pensions. "However, when I read the full Hutton Report," he says, "I realised that it was not a recipe for following the private sector into unsatisfactory schemes, but it provided the basis for the unions to negotiate very good pension schemes.

"Of course, it remains to be seen if the Tory-led government want to play their part in this. They have not begun well with the unilaterally imposed 3% surcharge on contributions. So, Ed was right to recommend to the striking unions, none of which incidentally is affiliated to the Labour Party, that they should continue with negotiations."

As it happens, David Bell, during his career as a personnel manager, twice held posts where he was responsible for the company pension scheme. He attempts to explain the current situation and what Lord Hutton proposes here.

6 July 2011

Ed Miliband welcomed by
European Socialists and Democrats

Ed Miliband had a warm welcome to a meeting of the socialist group of MEPs in Brussels on 22 June 2011. There was a very friendly atmosphere as a meeting of the European Parliamentary group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democratics heard him tell them how important it was to combat the Euro-scepticism that several questioners felt was spreading through Europe. With the financial problems of Greece very much on their minds, the MEPs clearly felt that European co-operation was all the more important.

In the picture, Ed is flanked (left) by Martin Schultz, president of the Socialists and Democrats group and Douglas Alexander (right), Labour's shadow Foreign Secretary.

By chance, a group of Labour members from the Eastern Region, including two from North East Hertfordshire, were on a visit to the Parliament and Richard Howitt, our MEP, arranged for them to sit in on the meeting.

Eastern Region members wait for the meeting to begin

24 June 2011

Incomplete U-turn on NHS

Before the election, David Cameron promised: "We will stop the top-down re-organisations of the NHS that have got in the way of patient care." What a pity we have not had a complete U-turn and the abandonment of the so-called reforms.

But should we be pleased about this incomplete U-turn? The re-organization is supposed to tackle the rising cost of the NHS, which is alleged to be unsustainable. Under Labour, health spending just about caught up with other advanced European economies, at about 8.5% of GDP, resulting, for example, in massive reductions in waiting lists, and new, better hospitals. Proportionately, spending is still well below the USA's.

The government says that, at a cost of £2 bn, the changes will save £12 bn over the next eight years - incidentally, much less than the savings being sought. Will they?

In England, 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) will be abolished. They will be replaced by a rather larger number of commissioning consortia. They will probably need to recruit staff made redundant by the PCTs. The NHS Future Forum, set up to advise the government on "improving" the legislation, also recommends Clinical Senates, to advise the consortia. It is not clear how this will save money. It is clear how it will cause disruption.

Ten strategic health authorities will be abolished. Mainly their job will be transferred to a new quango, the NHS Commissioning Board, but there will also be scrutiny by local authorities and patients, through Health and Wellbeing Boards. Also, the Future Forum recommends a national citizens' panel to report to parliament annually. All these bodies will need staff.

To make it worse, where consortia are not ready to take over from PCTs, the Commissioning Board will temporarily take over the duties, needing temporary staff to do this. Alternatively, some PCTs will be retained but re-organized to cover differing areas! 

It all sounds like a recipe for chaos - indeed, expensive chaos.

At least, we can be pleased that the Secretary of State will not be allowed to completely give up his duty to provide a free health service and that Monitor (the body which currently checks on NHS foundation trusts) will have a duty to promote integration. 

However, it seems that the Secretary of State will have a duty "to promote", rather than "to provide or secure the provision of a free health service". Also, Monitor will be charged with promoting competition as well as integration .... No, we do not understand that either!

So it seems that there is still likely to be a growing encroachment of the private sector into the NHS. Already, it has been noted that many GPs, who will still have an enhanced role in commissioning NHS services, are involved with a Virgin company seeking NHS business.

The core of the original bill was to encourage private sector involvement, since Tory ideology is that competition between companies drives up efficiency. If this motivation is largely gone, the revised proposals look like a face-saving exercise which not even the Tories believe will give much benefit. If it is not gone, then we have not gained much!

16 June 2011 (revised 20 June 2011)

Cameron's "greenest government ever" gets even more blue

Two countries are blocking the EU's attempt to ban fuel obtained from Canadian tar sands. The extraction of oil from these sands is extremely carbon intensive. One is our own Tory-led government and one is the Netherlands.

What links the two countries? Could it be Royal Dutch Shell?

Linda McAvan, the Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber (right), is a member of the European Parliament's Environment Committee. She says: "I know that the latest lobbying ploy for those who are opposed to accurate labelling of tar sands is to suggest a further delay for further research on different types of conventional oil. I find it unacceptable ....." (You can go to Linda's website here.)

4 June 2011

NHS changes a "big opportunity
for the private sector"

We wait to see if the pause for listening on the Health and Social Care bill will make any difference. Meanwhile, it has come to light that Mark Britnell, who is a member of the government's advisory panel on the NHS, told a conference last October that the changes would show "no mercy" to the NHS and would offer "a big opportunity to the private sector". He said that the NHS would end up as the financier for the Health service, rather like an insurance company, rather than a provider of hospitals and staff.

John Healy, Labour's shadow secretary of state for health (above right), said that this "gives the game away" about the government's plans for a free market NHS, opening up "all parts of the health service to private companies".

David Cameron says that he has never heard of Mark Britnell. You do get the feeling that Cameron lost control of the NHS changes when he allowed Andrew Lansley to go ahead with his White Paper. You will remember that David Cameron's line before the election was that he would not make top-down changes to the NHS.

4 June 2011

Labour defends campaign
about Urgent Care Centre

Although out of our constituency, Hertford Urgent Care Centre provides a welcome facility for many people in North East Hertfordshire. Mark Prisk, the Tory MP for Hertford & Stortford, in his regular column in the Hertfordshire Mercury accused Labour negative campaigning about the Centre.

The Mercury published David Bell's letter responding to this accusation on 26 May 2011:

Alongside this letter was another letter on the same topic from Peter Boyle, the newly elected Labour councillor on Hertford Town Council.

27 May 2011

OECD comes round to
Labour's view

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which had previously praised George Osborne's programme of cuts in state expenditure, has cut their forecast of growth in the UK economy for the second time. They now forecast only 1.4% growth this year.

Their chief economist, Pier Carlo Padoan, now says: "We see merit in slowing the pace of fiscal consolidation if there is not so good news on the growth front." Labour has consistently said that George Osborne was cutting too far and too fast, thus jeopardising the recovery.

Meanwhile, President Obama, on his state visit to the UK says that we have succeeded in "yank(ing) the world out of recession". "That was in large part due to concerted action between the US, the UK and other countries."

An object lesson in how to tell your host with great politeness that he is wrong - because, of course, this policy was formulated by the G20 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Gordon Brown!

26 May 2011

Osborne's plan for growth: abolish workers' rights

George Osborne says that the impact of employment laws is costly and the he will publish a timetable for a wholesale review. He plans to limit tribunal awards, cut the 90 day warning of redundancies and "simplify" the administration of the minimum wage (whatever that means).

If laws such as these are holding back our recovery, how is it that Germany and France have been growing their economies faster than the UK (three times and twice as fast respectively in quarter 1)? Yet, their employment laws are far more onerous than ours.

15 May 2011

District Council Election
2011

North Herts District Council

We were defending our seat in Letchworth Grange and David Kearns was re-elected with a majority of 159 (pictured right). Of the other seats within the constituency with an election this year Labour came second in Baldock Town, Letchworth South East, Letchworth South West, Royston Heath, Royston Meridian and Royston Palace. In Arbury and Weston & Sandon the Labour candidate was third and there was no Labour candidate in Ermine.

Elsewhere in the District, Labour councillor Judi Billing retained her seat with a majority of 573.

East Herts District Council

Within the constituency, we fought 10 seats.The nine single-member wards were retained by the Conservatives and in Buntingford two Tories were elected where previously the seats were held by a Tory and an Independent.

We had hoped to recover at least two seats elsewhere in the District, so that the Council did not continue to have no Labour councillors at all. Unfortunately this did not happen and we missed getting a seat in Hertford Sele by 16 votes after two re-counts.

The candidates for Braughing, Thundridge & Standon and Puckeridge (Steven Stone, Claire Bell and David Bell) were at Standon May Day on May 2

Click here for more information on the District Council elections.

6 May 2011

Tory spin

Labour fixed the leaking school roofs whilst the sun was shining

A Tory response to David Bell's letter on the budget came from Michael Paterson of the North East Herts Conservative Political Forum. It was full of the sort of Tory spin which has had far too much currency. We must refute these accusations.

He accused David Bell (below right) of being a "deficit denier". This is a ridiculous label when Labour had clearly stated plans to tackle the deficit - but in a way that does not put the recovery at risk.

He said that the budget was "all about growth", when the Office of Budget Responsibility had downgraded its growth forecast as a result of it.

He said that Labour had left this country "in a financial mess" and that higher unemployment and higher borrowing after the financial crisis was somehow Labour's fault. 

We all know that this was a global recession, which started in the USA. Labour's policies were adopted by almost every other country, including the USA, to prevent them from sinking into a depression as great as that of the 1930s. Statements do not become true through constant repetition!

He says that Labour failed to "fix the roof when the sun was shining" and that the country went into the recession with one of the biggest deficits. He fails to mention that we went into the recession with one of the lower net debts. Although there was a deficit just before the crisis, there was on average a small surplus during the Labour government before the crisis hit.

Both the Royston Crow and the Comet published this Tory response. Unfortunately, only the Crow published David Bell's second letter, making these points.

You can read Michael Paterson's letter and David Bell's response to it by clicking on the links.

16 April 2011

Too far and too fast

This is the text of a letter, published in the Letchworth and Baldock Comet and in the Royston Crow, from David Bell (below), writing on behalf of the constituency Labour Party:

What was the Chancellor’s singular achievement last week? To deliver a “budget for growth” that downgraded the growth forecast. However, it did upgrade some forecasts – those for borrowing and unemployment! These are the revisions made by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

Before the financial crisis hit, the UK, under Labour, had one of the lowest government debts in the western world and the budget deficit had been just about eliminated. It is not the case that there had been overspending by Labour.

The financial crisis, as we all know, began with USA sub-prime lending and almost all countries have suffered. The Labour government had to act, in similar ways to other large economies, like Germany and the USA, and this increased borrowing.

Nevertheless, following the last Labour budget, the economy started growing and unemployment falling. This all changed when the Tory-led government took over.

For example, the budget had nothing to ameliorate the effect on the economy of cuts in local authority funding. The grant to North Herts was cut by 16.9% this year and 12.7% next year, and to the County Council by 14.3% this year and 9.8% next. This is happening far too quickly: the private sector will struggle to employ those made redundant and to invest in capital projects to replace the spending on, for example, the Schools for the Future programme.

What is certain is that we shall lose public services, or have them downgraded. Truly, it is hurting, but it is not working.

David Bell
Parliamentary spokesperson
North East Hertfordshire Labour Party

1 April 2011

"Budget for growth" reduces growth

George Osborne's "singular achievement", as Ed Miliband (below left) told him in the House of Commons, has been "to deliver a budget for growth that downgrades the growth forecast". It also increases forecast borrowing and unemployment.

These forecasts were made by the independent Office of Budget Responsibility, a quango set up by George Osborne himself. He must be ruing the day that he did that!

By contrast, the economy was growing and unemployment falling after Labour's last budget, but all that changed when the Tory-led government took over. The economy actually shrank in the last quarter of 2010, whereas the economies of Germany and the USA continued to grow. Pathetically, George Osborne blamed the British snow, somehow much worse than the snow that fell in Germany and the USA.

Ed Miliband's verdict: "It's hurting, but it isn't working."

A budget of smoke and mirrors

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls (below right) has explained the "smoke and mirrors" used by George Osborne:

• He said he was not raising taxes, but he is changing the index for allowances to the consumer price index, raising an extra £1bn of tax by 2015-16.

• In a year's time, he will raise the tax-free threshold, but this will save people only £48 a year: the rise in VAT is already costing families with children nearly ten times that amount.

• He did not mention that the increase in the tax-free amount applied only to the basic personal allowance. There will be no increase for pensioners. Nor did he mention that the 2009 increases in pensioners' fuel allowances will be withdrawn this year.

• He has brought in measures to help first time buyers: not only does Shelter estimate that this will benefit only 1% of such buyers but also it replaces Labour's Homebuy Direct scheme which he abolished just 10 months ago.

• He is increasing the cut in corporation tax announced in the June 2010 budget, but Labour's investment allowances are being cut. This penalises manufacturing industry, whose investment is crucial for recovery.

• He has announced 12,500 more apprenticeships, but youth unemployment rose last quarter by 30,000 to almost 1 million.

• He announced 21 enterprise zones, which in the past have proved an expensive way of creating jobs, but the £20m funding is a fraction of the cuts so far in regional development funding.

• The Green Investment Bank does not become a proper bank until 2015, whilst Germany and China develop clean energy technology through public development banks.

• An increase in the bank levy offsets the benefit they would otherwise have had from the additional corporation tax cut, but the levy still raises much less money than Labour's tax on bank bonuses. 

So, with VAT already increased, benefits cut, tax credits frozen and unemployment rising, ordinary people bear the brunt of the pain. So, what measure does George Osborne tell us he is considering for the future? Reducing the 50% tax rate for those earning more than £150,000 pa!

As Ed Miliband said: "It's the same old Tories."

25 March 2011

County Council gives back £485,000 to developers

When developers are granted planning permission, they are usually required to provide some form of "planning gain" for the community. Some of this is money towards local services. This is known as section 106 money.

Since 2005, Hertfordshire Highways has handed £300,000 back to the developers, because they had failed to spend it in the time prescribed. The County Council has returned a further £184,000.

"This is a disgraceful waste of public money," says David Bell (right), who speaks on County matters for the constituency Labour Party and is vice-chair of Hertfordshire Labour Party. "Hertfordshire Highways is also holding £1m of section 106 money which they are in danger of having to hand back because they have not spent it yet.

"It is bad enough to delay getting the benefit from the money, but to delay for so long that they have to give it back is terrible."

13 March 2011

Shadow Minister castigates
Government

John Healy, Labour's shadow Health Secretary, urged Party members to keep up the pressure on the Tory-led government. He was speaking at the Stevenage Labour Party's Annual Dinner on 26 February 2011 to an audience of members from Stevenage and surrounding constituencies. His stirring speech catalogued the broken promises of the government and the measures that they were taking to reduce the size of the state and turn many services over to private companies.

Left fo right: Barbara Follett, Richard Howitt MEP, Claire Bell, David Bell (both vice-chairs of the constituency party), Jean Millard, Clyde Millard (constituency party chair) and John Healey MP, shadow Health Minister 

Photo courtesy of Peter Warwick

Barbara Follett, the former MP for Stevenage, Richard Howitt, MEP for the Eastern Region and Sharon Taylor, leader of Stevenage Council, also spoke. Entertainment was provided by the folk band, Clog Iron, with Ken Follett on bass guitar. The band also accompanied a rousing rendition of the Red Flag.

7 March 2011

Tory County Council approves cuts of £80m

Labour responded angrily as the Tories at County Hall made cuts in the budget of over £80m for 2011/12. The cuts included library services, home to school transport and support for sheltered housing schemes. Sharon Taylor, leader of the Labour Group (pictured left), said that the cuts were "just the tip of a very large iceberg". 

"Most of the cuts are reductions in budgets for the various departments," she explained, "and we do not yet know what cuts in services would result from this." She added that alongside this there will also be cuts in policing.

She said that Labour could not support a budget which removed reference to plans for tackling the housing crisis in the county, to support for small businesses and to narrowing the gap in the educational achievement of young children.

She acknowledged that the Tory-led government was forcing cuts to frontline services in all councils. "It's the less well-off in Hertfordshire who will be paying the price," she said.

She called on the Tories to use some of the massive reserve of £74m to support the Citizens' Advice Bureaux and the county's own Money Advice Unit, which had been supporting the community through the recession. Alternatively, they could cut the £1.4m spending on communications.

Unsurprisingly, Liberal Democrat councillors sat on the fence and abstained in the vote.

27 February 2011

GPs cannot run NHS
as a hobby

General practitioners care for their patients with, in most cases, a high degree of professionalism. The Tory-led government seems to think that they can also run the National Health Service in their spare time, like a hobby.

Last week, there were news reports of the first steps to implement Sir Ian Kennedy's report recommending the concentration of children's heart surgery into a smaller number of centres of excellence. These steps were taken by a Joint Committee of Primary Care Trusts.

Under the government proposals, primary care trusts will be replaced by consortia of GPs. Do you really want your doctor to spend his time going off to meetings such as this, rather than being there to treat you?

Running an efficient national health service is a complex matter, requiring its own professionalism. The government seems to think that it is just a matter of buying services from NHS hospitals or from profit-making commercial suppliers.

Speaking at the Welsh Labour Conference, in the country where Aneurin Bevan drew his inspiration for the NHS from schemes for miners' health, Ed Miliband (pictured above) said this:

"What David Cameron is doing is wrong for England because it takes the N out of the NHS.

"National standards - gone. Accountability - gone. Patient power - gone, handed back to the system. In its place - competition, not for the highest quality but for the cheapest price.

"Will these Tories never understand - healthcare is not a commodity to be bought and sold.

"What happens when a local hospital is undercut by a cheap provider twenty miles away? Will this Conservative government intervene to stop it from closing? They say no. Will David Cameron protect good NHS services if they are undermined by cheap private competitors? He says no.

"Will the interests of patients and local communities take priority over the interests of commerce? No. Will the government act if waiting times rise and patients lose out? No.

"We will take on David Cameron as he wastes billions of pounds putting ideology before people."

20 February 2011

UK growth grinds
to a standstill

"The contrast with the US economy is instructive," says Ed Balls, Labour's shadow Chancellor (pictured right), writing in the Independent on Sunday on 30 January 2011. Whilst the UK economy is reported to have shrunk slightly in the last quarter of 2010, the US economy showed strong growth.

He reports that the US Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, said in Davos that rapid and drastic spending cuts "are not the responsible way" to cut national deficits. Ed Balls comments: "The US Treasury Secretary is right and George Osborne is wrong."

George Osborne's strategy is "straight out of Margaret Thatcher's manual". After the election, he is raising taxes, cutting spending, slashing benefits and making people feel lucky to have a job, whilst building up his war-chest. Then, he will cut taxes just before the election to win a majority and start all over again.

"We have a Chancellor shaping his economic plans around a fixed political strategy to win an election in 2015 and cut the size of the state - outweighing his constitutional responsibility... to protect jobs, growth and homes. We badly need an alternative - and we need it now."

You can read Ed Balls' article here.

31 January 2011

Tories support sex traffickers and bull-fighters

The Tories - and the LibDems - voted in the European Parliament against a new law to crack down on sex traffickers. The law was passed with the support of Labour MEPs.

Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for this region (pictured right), visited Bishop's Stortford to support the Body Shop's campaign against sex trafficking. "It is outrageous," he said, "that Tory anti-EU prejudice is making it harder to arrest those abroad responsible for trafficking women and children for sexual exploitation in Britain."

Tory MEPs also voted against measures to prevent pharmaceutical companies from distributing unverified marketing information to patients via their doctors; to end EU agricultural subsidies for bull-fighting; and to set a 30% carbon reduction target for 2020, in spite of the fact that this is the Coalition Government's policy. Richard Howitt and his Labour colleagues voted for these measures and all of them were passed by the European Parliament.

25 January 2011

Cameron's biggest breach of promise yet

Breaches of promises made before the election by Tory and LibDem ministers are so frequent that we hardly notice any more. But the massive re-organization of the NHS is the biggest yet.

Not only did David Cameron himself promise there would be no top-down reorganization but there was nothing about the proposed changes in the Coalition agreement either.

In May, before the election, Cameron was promising no re-organization. Yet by July the Health Secretary could publish a White Paper setting out the re-organization. Cameron must have known.

John Healey, Labour's shadow Health Secretary (pictured left), says: "This isn't just the wrong change at the wrong time - it's a change the Conservatives promised they wouldn't make .... all the experts are telling (Cameron) to change course."

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Strategic Health Authorities will be abolished by 2013. Their roles will be taken over, in the main, by consortia of general practitioners (GPs), who will, no doubt, have to set up organizations to do the work of commissioning health care - rather like the PCTs, whose staff will have left or been made redundant by then.

Dr Clare Gerada, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, proposes the much simpler course of putting more GPs on to PCT boards, each of which currently only has one or two.  "You could have simply mandated to ensure GPs had more influence on PCT boards" she says,"and achieved largely the same results."

Meanwhile, Dr Laurence Buckman of the British Medical Association tells us that PCTs are "imploding as staff leave in droves", putting health care at risk for the next two years.

The Commons' Health Committee says the NHS has not been able to plan properly for the reforms and the changes will make achieving savings in the NHS even more difficult. They do not think the plan is the most efficient way of improving care. Dr Sarah Wollaston, a GP and a Tory member of the Committee, says that it feels like "someone has tossed a grenade"into the NHS.

There is, of course, a hidden agenda - a smaller state, market forcesinstead of public accountability and the profit motive replacing public service. "Deficit reduction is just the cover story," says Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary.

David Bell, who chairs the East Herts Rural branch Labour Party, made these points in a letter published in the Hertfordshire Mercury (27 January 2011). Click here for the text of the letter. He also made the point that the rebuilt hospital in Hertford and the Urgent Care Centre within it existed only because of investment in the NHS by the last Labour Government.

18 January 2011 (amended 29 January 2011)

Savage cuts in funding for
our local councils

Hertfordshire County Council's "formula grant" from central government will be cut by 14.3% in 2011-12 and by a further 9.8% in 2012/13. 

To make this sound more palatable, the Government has talked about "spending power". This includes council tax, which perhaps is fair enough, but it also includes ring-fenced grants from government and £11m for new responsibilities transferred from the NHS. So, the Government says that the cut is 1.55% in 2011-12, whereas in reality the cut in discretionary spending power is 4.6%.

The cuts in the formula grant for North Hertfordshire District Council will be 16.9% in 2011-12 and a further 12.7%  in the following year. For East Hertfordshire District Council the figures are  17.8% and 9.6%.

Even on the Government's own spending power measure, each of our two district councils loses about 5% in the first year and about 4% in the second year.

However, we should count ourselves lucky that we do not live in Bolsover or Burnley, where the cut in spending power is 8.9% in both years. Ten other councils lose the maximum of 8.9% for two years running.

Labour's shadow Communities Secretary, Caroline Flint (pictured left), commented: "All [the Communities Secretary's] warm words about transitional funds can't disguise the truth - the poorest neighbourhoods will be hardest hit while the better off will do best as a result of the choices the coalition government are making."

18 December 2010

Student fees an accounting trick or worse

The increase in the tuition fees charged to students "is not about deficit reduction," said Andy Burnham, Labour's shadow Education Secretary (pictured below), on BBC Radio's Any Questions? on 10 December 2010.

The Office of Budget Responsibility, set up in the summer by the Chancellor, has backed this up. They say that the Government will have to borrow an extra £5.6bn to make loans in 2015-16. Furthermore, they say that, at best, only around half of graduates will ever pay back their loans in full, and it could be only 25%.

It is obvious that no part of any loan will be paid back in the first three years, whilst the student is at university, and possibly not for some time after that, until the graduate starts earning £21,000 a year (a figure which the ConDems have belatedly agreed to index-link). By the time any money flows in, we shall, according to George Osborne, have eliminated the deficit. Meanwhile, the Government will be borrowing money to lend to students, instead of borrowing money to give to the universities.

Why do this? Perhaps it is an accounting trick, because it transfers the debt to the students, making it no longer a Government debt, even though the reality is that future Governments will have to bear the cost of writing off loans that are not repaid.

However, Andy Burnham sees it is as a very worrying "ideological change" towards a market-driven university system. The fees introduced by Labour shared the cost of a university education between the student and the state, since both benefit. With the 80% cut in this Government's direct funding, students wanting to study arts or humanities will bear the full cost. This is, he says, "a fundamental shift" in the way universities are funded and "a decisive move to a more élitist system".

12 December 2010

George Osborne at the
roulette wheel

Alan Johnson, the shadow Chancellor (pictured right), castigated the Chancellor's plans to make £81bn of spending cuts as "an unprecedented gamble". He had "swung the axe in a bout of summer madness" with no plans to boost jobs.

George Osborne had claimed that the new report from the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) showed that the Government was "on course". Their report showed the economy growing more quickly than expected this year, but they cut their own previous forecast for next year from 2.3% to 2.1%.

But, as Alan Johnson said, the Chancellor is "in the casino, but he has not spun the wheel yet". His cuts have not yet come into force, nor has the rise in VAT yet taken place. The economy is still operating mainly under the terms set by the Labour government and the improved growth shows that the Labour prescription is working. The gamble of the forthcoming cuts has not yet had its effect.

The OBR also cut its previous forecast of job losses in the public sector to 160,000. We are in a worrying state when 160,000 job losses is heralded as good news! But it is worse than that. The reason why they cut their forecast is that more of the cuts will be from the benefit budget than they expected. So, the most vulnerable will suffer even more than the OBR thought.

Ed Miliband (pictured left) took up the theme at Prime Minister's Questions, pointing out that the report showed that unemployment will rise next year, whereas it will fall in other major economies. David Cameron's response was that Ed Miliband was "talking the economy down" and that the rise was because the OBR had decreased its estimate of unemployment this year. Once again, the reduction stems from the current economy before the cuts begin to bite!

1 December 2010

Grave concerns in Royston

Government cuts even affect the dead. Read about it in Royston Labour News.

26 November 2010

£300 million for East of England at risk

The East of England is at risk of losing £300 million of European regional funding because the Government has abolished the body to which the European Union (EU) gives it! The money, which is intended to help people and businesses in the region used to be handed out to the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), which the Government has summarily abolished.

Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for the East of England (pictured right), who has been at the forefront of obtaining European cash for the region, asked a parliamentary question to get more information. He discovered that the Government has not had a single conversation with the EU about this. He says that the EU is reluctant to hand regional funds to national governments, because they want to be sure that it will be spent in the intended region.

26 November 2010

Labour councillors vote
against rise

Labour councillors on North Herts District Council voted against an increase in allowances for themselves and other councillors. The Tory councillors supported the recommendation - so that, with the increase, allowances will now cost council tax payers more than £325,000 every year.

The increase - more than £700 for each councillor - was recommended in an independent report, but North East Herts Labour Party secretary, Les Baker (pictured left) said: "It cannot be denied that allowances received by councillors allow them to serve their electorate.

"This, however, is not the time to increase such payments and it is absolutely right that Labour councillors voted against the rise. It is well known that councillors on North Herts District Council receive less than councillors elsewhere, but this is not a competition between councils to see which one can provide the highest allowances.

"The Tories' accepting an increase in these days of threatened cuts and so called austerity is an appalling decision and one that can be seen as morally wrong."

Read the report in the Royston and Buntingford Mercury here.

15 November 2010

LibDem candidate joins Labour

The LibDem parliamentary candidate at the general election in the neighbouring Hertford and Stortford constituency has joined the Labour Party. Andrew Lewin, who lives in Bishop's Stortford, stood for the Liberal Democrats in May 2010.

He was formally welcomed into the Labour Party by Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for the Eastern Region (on the right in photograph above).

Peter Wood, the treasurer of the Hertford and Stortford Labour Party (pictured right), also welcomed him to the Labour Party. Peter said: "The LibDems have changed just to get the principal people to become ministers. They have had to give away a lot of their principles. More LibDems should come across to Labour."

Andrew Lewin was quoted in the Mercury (11 November 2010) as saying: "The Liberal Democrats have walked away from many of their manifesto commitments...... Government policy is being driven wholly by the Conservative party. It's very hard to discern any LibDem influence in this coalition.

"I believe Ed Miliband has provided a platform I can endorse and sign up to. His election, combined with what's been going on since day one of the coalition, is what made my mind up."

Are you a LibDem voter who is unhappy with Nick Clegg and his colleagues? Would you like to know more about joining us? Click here to contact us. Be sure to give us your name and address.

12 November 2010

The undeserving poor

Tories return to 16th century values

The LibDemCon Government plans to limit housing benefit to £400 per week for larger families from 2011 and, from 2013, to reduce all housing benefits by 10% for those out of work for more than a year.

This may sound all right on the back of an envelope, but in practice it has all sorts of unpleasant effects. Many have protested that one effect of this will be to displace poorer families - many of them in work - from very expensive areas, like inner London.

Children will be moved from their schools and perversely people may have to give up jobs to move to an area with high unemployment. Mark Field, the Tory MP for Westminster, has said this will cause a "huge social upheaval".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday, 26 October 2010, Oliver Heald, the Tory MP for our constituency, admitted that there was a special problem in London and suggested that there might be some softening of the approach in such areas of high rental prices. However, David Cameron, the following day at Prime Minister's Questions, said that the Government was sticking to its policies.

Boris Johnson at loggerheads with Cameron

Now, Boris Johnson, the Tory Mayor of London, has raised the temperature of the dispute, saying that "no Kosovo-style cleansing" (of the poor) would take place in London "under his watch". In doing so, he echoed the words of Chris Bryant, Labour's shadow minister for constitutional reform (pictured left), who said that the plans would "sociologically cleanse" 200,000 people from inner cities, consigning them to an "outer ring".

The 10% reduction is equally rigid, taking no account of the circumstances of the benefit recipient. It is clear that a person who had no job for a year, whatever the state of the labour market and however hard he or she has tried to get a job, is considered to be undeserving by the Coalition Government. So, they can take the strain of the cuts in public expenditure, even if their children will suffer.

It seems that the Government view is that people should not have large families if they might have to claim benefits: indeed, Jeremy Hunt, the Tory Culture Secretary, has said so.

Would you help us to get a better Britain? Click here to give us your name and address.

28 October 2010

Don't believe Tory spin

Comprehensive Spending Review "unravels"

George Osborne's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) was a masterpiece - of spin.

But it is unravelling fast, says Labour's Shadow Chancellor, Alan Johnson (pictured left). The respected Institute of Fiscal Studies' (IFS) analysis shows that the CSR was not nearly as fair as George Osborne said. The Treasury's own figures showed that the very poorest will lose as high a proportion of their money as those earning £35,000 to £42,000. Only those earning over £42,000 lose more.

The IFS analysis shows that the Treasury omitted some factors and the effect will be that the poorest fifth will suffer most, followed by the next poorest. Both these groups suffer more than the richest fifth. However, it is true that the biggest effect is on very high earners - the richest 2% - although this is because of Labour's 50% tax rate for the very highest earners.

The Office of Budget Responsibility, set up by George Osborne himself, has also weighed in. They say that the measures may not save as much as the Chancellor predicted. They suggest that people earning just over the higher rate tax threshold, who stand to lose child benefit, may bring down their taxable income by working less hours, increasing pension contributions or making Gift Aid donations to charities. They also warn that the savings from transferring people from incapacity benefit to employment support allowance is very uncertain.

Is the NHS budget really protected?

It is true that the budget will rise in real terms, but only by 0.1% per year. But demand will be greater from an aging population; the NHS will have a new reponsibility to fund social care (currently funded by local councils); and capital expenditure will be cut by 17%.

Are banks to pay their fair share?

It is true that there will be a bank levy, raising £2.5 bn. But this is much less than they are paying in bonuses (£7 bn); and they benefit more from the cut in corporation tax (or they would if they paid any corporation tax). For the moment, they can set their losses during the financial crisis against their current liability.

Must the deficit be cut so quickly?

It is true that the current deficit is 11.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) and is the second biggest in Europe (after Ireland). But our total debt this year will be 78% of GDP, less than France's (amongst others) and the same as Germany's. This is because, before the crisis, the Labour government had one of the lowest debts in Europe.

It is important to cut the deficit, but there is plenty of scope to take it more slowly, so that the economy can grow us out of the problem. The last time such huge cuts were made, in 1918 by another ConDem government, the debt actually rose from 114% of GDP to 180%. 

The ConDems want to eliminate the deficit in four years, mainly by cutting Government expenditure. The Labour plan was to cut the deficit by half in four years, with higher taxation taking more of the strain than in the Government's plan.

The Tories actually want to cut public services

Alan Johnston, in his reponse to the Chancellor's statement, said that some Tories welcomed cuts in services because they wanted a smaller state. Are the rapid cuts driven by this ideology? George Osborne plans to eliminate the deficit in four years. Evan Davies, on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, challenged the Chancellor to explain why his plans included cuts in the fifth year, after the deficit had been eliminated. He could only bluster in response.

And the biggest spin of all ...

Clearly, ConDem spin doctors have instructed every minister to blame the Labour Government for the large Government debt. The theory is that, if you repeat this untruth often enough, people will believe it. Apparently, we should ignore the fact that there was a global crisis which started in the USA.

The fact is that, as Ed Balls (pictured left) said in his Bloomberg lecture last August, "it is a question of fact that we entered this financial crisis with low inflation, low interest rates and the lowest net debt of any large G7 country."

22 October 201018

Our Labour MEP in solidarity with Burmese prisoners

Richard Howitt, Labour MEP for the Eastern Region, stands in solidarity with Burmese political prisoners. He is joined by Clyde Millard, chair of North East Hertfordshire Labour Party.

As part of the Amnesty International campaign to support prisoners of conscience in Burma, Richard and Clyde supported Zarnagar and Mie Mie, who are currently imprisoned by the Burmese government.

Amnesty has already submitted a file of 5,000 such photographs to world leaders at the Asia-Europe meeting in Brussels and are now collecting more photographs to submit to the Association of South East Nations summit at the end of October. There is more information on the Amnesty International UK website.

Richard and Clyde were photographed at  a Labour Party European Forum in Cambridge on 16 October 2010. Richard is shown supporting Zarganar, one of Burma's biggest comedians, who is now serving a 35-year prison sentence for leading a movement raising money for survivors of Cyclone Nargis. He was arrested after giving interviews to foreign journalists in which he criticised the Burmese government's handling of the relief situation.

Clyde is supporting Mie Mie, who participated in the 1988 protests while she was still in high school. In 2007, she led a women's movement march on the day after prominent activists had been arrested for their role in the protests. Mie Mie was sentenced to 65 years for her involvement in the 2007 protests.

17 October 2010

Make the Coalition a one-term Government

"Let us resolve today that this will be a one-term government." This was Ed Miliband's call to the Labour Conference in his speech on 28 September 2010.

12In a speech which heralded a new start for Labour led by a new generation, he said how proud he was of many of the achievements of the last Labour Government.

Proud of past achievements

"The old way of thinking said that economic efficiency would always come at the price of social justice," he said. "With the minimum wage, tax credits, the New Deal, they showed that was wrong."

He went on to say how proud he was that hundreds of thousands of children and pensioners had been lifted out of poverty, that newly built schools and modernised hospitals had become a fact of life, that attitudes towards gay and lesbian people had been changed, and that the Scottish parliament and the Welsh Assembly had been set up.

"Peace in Northern Ireland ... will be one of Tony Blair's great legacies," he said. He went on to say that it was thanks to the leadership of Gordon Brown around the world that 40 million more children were now going to school and 200 million are protected from malaria.

Honest about past mistakes

But he called on the Party to be honest and admit its mistakes. He cited the failure to regulate financial services more strongly, the failure to recognise the concerns about the effect of immigration on communities and the involvement in the MPs' expenses scandal. He also said: "We were ... wrong to take Britain to war (in Iraq)."

We are the optimists

As to the future, he indicated that some cuts in expenditure had to be supported, but not "at a pace which endangers our economic recovery". He talked of a "living wage" to replace the minimum wage and the need to reduce the gap between rich and poor. He agreed on the need to review welfare benefits, but not to make arbitrary cuts, and on the need to consider better alternatives to short prison sentences.

He said that he would press for an elected House of Lords and for less restraints on local democracy. He added that he himself would vote for the alternative vote system, if the Government holds a referendum.

"We are the optimists in politicis today," he said. "Optimistic about our country. Optimistic about our world. We will change Britain."

Click here to watch Ed's speech.

29 October 2010

Constituency Party backed
the winner

Ed Miliband was nominated for the Labour Party leadership by an all-member meeting of the Constituency Labour Party on 23 July 2010.

All candidates had some support, but after discussion of the merits of each candidate a vote was taken, which was won by Ed Miliband.

The nomination was purely an expression of support by the Constituency Party. The election takes place according to an electoral college system with three sections: members, trade unions and MPs and MEPs. Each section is given equal weight.

Ed wins on the fourth round

Ed Miliband was announced as the winner, just before 5 pm on 25 September 2010.

Voting was close between the Miliband brothers, but in the end Ed was the clear winner.  On first preferences, David Miliband was ahead, with 37.78% of the votes to Ed's 34.33%. As first Diane Abbott and then Andy Burnham were eliminated, the votes for both Miliband brothers rose, with David still ahead. It was not until Ed Balls was eliminated that Ed Miliband pulled ahead and topped 50%. The final tally was 50.65% for Ed and 49.35% for David.

Although this seems like a narrow margin, it represents quite a lot of votes. It is equivalent to nearly 4,950 Labour members.

Don't believe the Tory press

The Tory press are already saying that Ed won because of union support and that he does not have the confidence of the rest of the Labour Party. Let us be quite clear:

1. The unions do not have a block vote. These are the votes of individual members of unions and affiliated societies.

2. It is true that the majority in this section favoured Ed Miliband, but a great many favoured other candidates on their first preferences. In USDAW, CWU and Community, for example, David was ahead of Ed on first preferences.

3. Ed had huge support in the other two sections. In the fourth round (where the contest was between the two brothers), 122 of the MPs and MEPs (46.6%) supported Ed. In the constituency party section, 45.6% voted for Ed.

In any case, the whole of the Party will now be behind Ed Miliband as he leads us back to victory.

For more information, go to the Labour Party website.

Ed Miliband's message

1 In his speech after winning, Ed Miliband said:

"Today a new generation has stepped forward to change our party. We are united in our mission to transform Labour so that, once again, we stand up for the hardworking majority who play by the rules and want a less divided and more prosperous Britain. I know we have a lot of work to do. The journey starts today."

26 September 2010

The Government's "Big Lie"

Ed Miliband's first task is to expose the Big Lie, according to Chris Mullin, the former Labour MP (pictured below).

Writing in the Independent on 25 September 2010, before the result of the ballot for the leadership was announced, he called for some honesty in the debate about the economy. Every speech from David Cameron, George Osborne or Nick Clegg refers to "the mess inherited from Labour", following the Margaret Thatcher theory that, if you say something often enough, it becomes true.

The first task, says Chris Mullin, is to rebut the lie, pointing out:

1. The crisis is global and began in the USA.

2. Most of the deficit was incurred through rescuing the economy from the folly of bankers.

3. In the end, the Tories went along with the rescue plan.

4. With hindsight, we can all see that "light touch regulation" of financial institutions was a mistake. However, you can just imagine the hysteria organized by the Tories and their friends if the Labour Government had attempted a few years ago to tighten the regulation.

25 September 2010

Government to increase child poverty

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has confirmed Labour's view that the LibDemCon budget is regressive. Their research shows that the poorest familes will be hit the hardest, losing over 5% of their income by 2014. This is a bigger loss than pensioners or any other household group except the very richest.

James Browne, co-author of the IFS report said: "It seems likely that, once changes to other benefits are taken into account, child poverty will go up."

The budget may also have breached the law. Under the Equality Act 2010, championed by Harriet Harman, the Treasury had an obligation to consider the impact on women, the disabled and ethnic minorities. The Equalities and Human Rights Commission announced that it was investigating whether this obligation was met. For example, the budget contained curbs on the Disability Living Allowance

Justin Webb, on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on 25 August 2010, repeatedly asked the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Mark Hoban, whether this statutory obligation had been met and Mark Hoban repeatedly avoided answering the question.

For other comments on George Osborne's regressive budget, click here.

26 August 2010

GPs to manage the health service

.....as well as looking after you.

Primary Care Trusts, only just re-organized into larger bodies for efficiency, are being abolished and the task of managing the finances of the NHS is being given to GPs instead.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of them do not want this additional task, which surely must result in them having to employ staff, such as accountants, to help them carry it out.

They may even need to set up organizations to carry out the work for them. Perhaps they could call these organizations "primary care trusts" ......

1 August 2010

Government prescribes chaos for planning and education

Secondary school transfer is already a contentious matter, but at least the County Council can ensure some consistency in how it works. However, the Government is already taking action to allow most schools to become academies.

Those that do will be able to set their own entry criteria. So parents will have to find out what the criteria are for each school and apply separately to those that they choose for their children. It is not clear if the County Council will have any role in facilitating this process.

The Government has also told councils that they may ignore the existing Regional Spatial Strategy, if they so wish. Apart from the retrograde step of ending regional co-operation, it leaves a vacuum in the guidance available to planning authorities.

There will be a new planning act to deal with this in some way or other, but it is understood that this may not be passed into law for two years. Meanwhile, different councils will, no doubt, take different views, ending any co-operative effort to build the houses that we need or to plan for improved transport.

10 July 2010

Osborne makes "classic error"

This is the view of Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel laureate economist and former chief economist at the World Bank. He says that Chancellor George Osborne confuses national economics with household economics.

"You cut expenditures and the economy goes down. We have lots of experiments to show this, thanks to Herbert Hoover and the IMF ... economies will get weaker, investment will be stymied and it's a downward vicious spiral." He says that Japan did this in 1997; just as it was recovering, it raised VAT and went into another recession.

Japan is now set to have a government debt of over 200%, far worse than the UK, according to figures from OECD and the EU.

See earlier comments by Stiglitz here.

1 July 2010

NHS Number One for efficiency

A Commonwealth Fund report rated the NHS as the most efficient in their study. Andy Burnham, shadow health secretary, warns that this rating could slip as Labour's targets, which brought about such a dramatic reduction in waiting times for operations, are dismantled by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats.

1 July 2010

Regressive budget - butchery to come

(25 June 2010)

The LibDemCon government tried to soften us up for their butchery by claiming that things were worse than they expected. But their new quango, the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), told them that they were, in fact, better.

The LibDemCon government also tell us that the debt is unmanageable. Yet it was set to peak at 75% of GDP under Labour proposals - "better than most of Europe and where it was in the 1960s," according to Sean O'Grady, economics editor of the Independent. It was 262% of GDP after the Second World War when the NHS was created and a vast house building programme was undertaken.

The LibDemCon government call their budget progressive, by which they mean that the wealthier pay more. But most of the progressive measures, like the 50% tax rate above £150,000 a year, were part of the Labour budget and not theirs. The rise in the tax threshold is less than the LibDems promised before the election and is offset by the regressive VAT increase, which the LibDems vigorously campaigned against in the General election and which the Tories "had no plans for".

On the BBC Today programme on 24 June 2010, Nick Clegg, the LibDem deputy prime minister, had the effrontery to claim that one factor making this necessary was that the government inherited plans from Labour for £44 bn of cuts in Government expenditure over the next four years. This apparently is why they have to make increased cuts (25% instead of Labour's 20%) in expenditure on top of the £13 bn each year from the VAT increase. No, we don't understand the logic either!

He also said that Labour had somehow been remiss in not saying where these cuts would come. But George Osborne will not tell us where his cuts will come either - until his autumn spending review. All that is clear is that they will be more savage.

As Vince Cable, the LibDem Business Secretary, used to say, cutting too much too soon risks a double dip recession. And the government's OBR has confirmed that growth will be lower under George Osborne's budget than it would have been if we had stayed with the Labour budget. Many predict that unemployment will rise to 10%.

Tories set to cause recession

(14 June 2010)

Don't take out word for it. Read what David Blanchflower, a former member of of the Bank of England's policy committee, told Sky News on Sunday, 13 June 2010:

"... if these plans (the proposed spending cuts) are implemented, it is almost certain that we are going to have a double dip recession .... we need a plan for growth: we shouldn't be cutting now."

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate economist, who warned back in February that Cameron's policy was "really dangerous" (read more here), wrote on 15 June 2010 that "there is a risk that the European economy will go into double-dip recession". By contrast, he points out that Larry Summers, President Obama's economic adviser, and Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary, are keen on maintaining support for the recovery.

Outrageous statements from Osborne and Clegg

(1 June 2010)

George Osborne, the Chancellor, says that the economic situation is "worse than we thought" and accuses Labour of "fiddling the figures". Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, says that "our problems are more serious than we realised".

Unfortunately for them, Sir Alan Budd's Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR), just set up by the Chancellor, says that Government borrowing will be £30 bn lower than expected and are likely to continue to be lower over the next few years than Alistair Darling predicted.

The structural budget deficit, according to the OBR, will be only 2.8% of GDP in five years' time, only marginally higher than the 2.5% that Alistair Darling was predicting

The OBR does say growth will be lower than Alistair Darling predicted. Of course it will, since the Government is withdrawing support for the recovery. But interestingly it cites another reason - the fall in the size of the workforce - and this is in spite of the fact that OBR assumes net immigration at a level higher than David Cameron has promised.

So much for the Tories' vaunted parent power

(31 May 2010)

Schools will be able to become academies without consulting parents (or teachers), under the Tory proposals. The head and governors can decide.

And if they become academies they will be controlled locally by a governing body appointed mainly by the sponsor - whoever that might be. Not much role for parents there, unless they themselves set up a new school. So much for parent power.

And so much for decentralisation, since ultimate oversight will be by central Government. This will also reduce the local authority's budget, so that it will have less to provide services for those with special educational needs. The fragmentation will end any consistency in admission systems or co-operation between existing specialist schools.

As for parents setting up their own schools, on the so-called "Swedish model", this will probably attract extreme religious groups and it certainly will take money away from the Building Schools for the Future programme, which has been steadily improving the facilities of existing schools. What's more,the chief inspector of Sweden's schools has said that the Swedish experiment does not improve educational standards.

Read what Fiona Millar, who is an experienced governor, had to say about this.

Don't put your country at risk

(1 May 2010)

The recovery is just beginning. The Tory response: "Let's take an extra £6 bn out of the economy."

There are 1,600 people killed at work each year. The Tory response: "Let's dismantle the Health and Safety Executive."

There are 3,500 people killed on the roads each year. The Tory response: "Let's not fund any more speed cameras."

Money is tight for the Government. The Tory response: "Let's give away £200,000 to each of the 3,000 wealthiest estates."

School results have improved enormously in the last 13 years. The Tory response:  "Let's take some money away from them and give it to parents or faith groups to set up additional schools."

The Tories - worse than you remember

Hospital waiting list down from 31,535 under Tories to 9 now

(1 May 2010)

In 1997, after  18 years of Tory rule, 31,535 people in the Eastern region had been waiting for more than six months to go into hospital. Now, under Labour, there are only nine. In many regions there are none.

And the Tories have pledged to abolish the target that cancer patients should be seen within two weeks.

Under Labour, there are 100 new hospitals, 40,000 more doctors and 83,000 more nurses. Don't put this huge improvement at risk.

David Kirkman's pledges to you

(21 April 2010)

David Kirkman's election address set out five pledges.

He said: "Labour will invest in increasing Sure Start children's centres, whereas the Tories would cut the number of centres (although they talk about "improving" the centres by having more health visitors).

"We will create a National Social Care Service to help elderly people stay in their own homes and continue to provide winter fuel allowance, bus passes and the minimum pension guarantee.

"We will help families through family allowance, tax credits and a decent minimum wage, whether or not the parents are married.

"We will expand the supply of affordable housing and give help to first time buyers. You can read Labour's housing manifesto here.

"And we will protect the environment by meeting carbon emission targets and fighting worldwide for a legally binding treaty. Read more on Labour's Green Manifesto here."

These were David's personal pledges. They are the matters about which he feels strongly. He also subscribes to the Labour pledges shown below.

If you did not seen David's election address you can view it here.

The Tories' nasty friends

(20 April 2010)

In the European Parliament the Tories left the main right-wing group and helped set up a new group, led by Michal Kaminski. A new book by Rafal Pankowski exposes Kaminski and his Law and Justice party for what it is. He says that they have called for the re-criminalisation of homosexuality and the death penalty. Whilst briefly in power, they "purified Polish culture" by withdrawing Goethe and Doestoevsky from school reading lists and taught in science lessons that Darwinism is "a literary fiction".

Richard Howitt, the Labour MEP for the Eastern Region, reviews the book in the New Statesman. Read his review here.

You can tell a man by the company he keeps - or so they say. One senior Tory did get up and walk away: read more on this.

Labour's Green Manifesto

(15 April 2010)

Labour's Green Manifesto sets out a ten point plan to meet the challenge of climate change. At its launch Ed Milliband said: 

"The first-time voters of today will be the ones who will live with the consequences of all of our decisions for years to come. Tackling climate change isn't just about avoiding disaster but also ensuring we have a prosperous future and a fair one. That's why I am proud of Labour's Green manifesto. It embodies our values, creating jobs for young people, protecting the vulnerable, standing up for the many and enshrining our commitment to fairness now and in the future."

By contrast, the Tories keep quiet about climate change, because only 5% of their candidates think that it is important (see below).

In the European Parliament, 22 of the 48 Tory MEPs either voted against or abstained from the Parliament's support for the Copenhagen summit!

You can read Labour's Green Manifesto here.

Thumbs up for SureStart children's centres from Hertfordshire parents

(15 April 2010)

99% of parents are satisfied or very satisfied with SureStart in Hertfordshire. "Children's centres play a vital role in their local communities," says the head of Hertfordshire's childhood support services.

Yet this is a service where Tory cuts could shut one in five of the centres, especially in wealthy areas like Hertfordshire. Read the Mercury report here.

Don't risk a Tory Government

(10 April 2010)

"The Labour Party is the party of recovery. The Conservative plans pose great risk," says David Kirkman in a statement to the Hertfordshire Mercury.

He says that taking money out of the economy before the recovery is firm, as the Tories plan, is just too great a risk.

He also points to the huge advances that have been made since 1997 by the Labour Government - in health, education, care of the elderly, law and order, and sport and culture.

He outlines Labour's plans for the future, supporting businesses and families - with SureStart centres, a two-week guarantee on cancer referrals, police spending more time on the beat and the immigration points system.

Read his full statement here.

General Election on May 6th

(6 April 2010)

David Kirkman, Labour's parliamentary candidate, welcomed the news that the General Election would be on 6 May.   "This gives Labour the chance to get a clear mandate to bring Britain out of the global recession," he says. "The Tories consistently opposed all the measures to revitalise the economy - and now they want to start making cuts before the recovery is established."

"This is why Labour's first pledge to you is to secure the recovery."

"In North East Hertfordshire, on the evidence of the last three elections, only Labour can beat the Tory. So even if you are disillusioned with politicians, don't waste your vote on other parties. I am a newcomer to national politics. My motivation is solely to make this country a better place for everyone."

Securing the recovery

(26 March 2010)

"In the budget, I took steps to provide the support for new jobs, businesses, families and the economy," says Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer. "We took the choice to look after people, not leave them to fend for themselves as the Tories did in the 80s and 90s."

Alastair Darling presented the Budget on 24 March 2010

The budget supports the economy until recovery is secured. It helps families with £4 a week extra child tax credits for one and two-year olds. It supports older people with an extension of the higher winter fuel allowance and state pensions rise by 2.5% in April. It extends help for mortgage holders and gives most first time buyers a stamp duty holiday for the next two years.

The extra money from the tax on bankers' bonuses will be used to boost new industries and future jobs. A Green Investment Bank will further promote the Government's programme to reduce Britain's carbon footprint.

No one under 24 will need to be unemployed for longer than six months before being offered work or training. There will be more apprenticeships and more university places.

"It is very clear that those on low incomes gain, especially if they have young children. Only those on very high incomes pay more," says David Kirkman, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for North East Hertfordshire. "The brunt of the recession has fallen on those who have lost their jobs, so help to get young people into work and to support small businesses, which provide many of the jobs in our economy, is very welcome."

"By contrast, the Tories would cut child tax credits and child trust funds for those on modest and middle incomes, and cut back on Sure Start children's centres, like the one just being enlarged in Buntingford. They would give away £200,000 to those who inherit the 3,000 richest estates, whilst we think it is right to freeze the inheritance tax threshold. So, those with the biggest inheritances would help us to pay for the care of older people."

Read more ....

Tories are trying to buy the Election

(20 March 2010)

"Michael Ashcroft is funding Tory parties in many constituencies with the money that he has not paid in tax," says David Kirkman. "Paid deliverers are going from door to door with glossy leaflets and battle buses have appeared in Labour-held constituencies like Great Yarmouth."

"In North East Herts we have no money to fund our campaign from external sources," he adds. "We get a proportion of our members' subscriptions; we raise funds through putting on events and raffles; and we get some local donations. Just about enough to run a campaign if we watch the pennies. We rely on local members to print and deliver leaflets."

When Michael Ashcroft became a peer, he gave an undertaking to become resident in Britain. It is clear that William Hague, who led the Conservative Party at that time, thought that he was undertaking to become domiciled in this country for tax purposes. Why else did he say that he would be paying "millions of pounds" in tax? Baronness Dean, who was on the committee that accepted Michael Ashcroft's undertaking, has made clear that her understanding was that he was going to pay tax fully.

"He may have observed the letter of his undertaking, but not the spirit of it," says David Kirkman. "So, I am delighted that the Chancellor has announced that one of the new tax information exchange agreements will be with Belize. Lord Ashcroft is set to be a minister if the Tories win power. Do you want a man like this in a position of power in this country?"

It's no time to change
our Government

(2 March 2010)

"But it is time to change our MP," says David Kirkman, Labour's parliamentary candidate for North East Hertfordshire.

He says that Labour takes an optimistic view of the future, believing that even in tough times we can achieve great things. By contrast, the Tories take a pessimistic view. They would "leave the recession to take its course and leave people to sink or swim." 

In the newsletter going out in parts of Letchworth Garden City, he contrasts Labour's achievements and plans with Tory past votes and future plans. For example, Labour helped people through the recession with measures such as an above-average increase in Child Tax Credit worth up to £2,235 p.a. The Tories opposed the measures to stimulate the economy in the downturn and propose cutting tax credits and the Child Trust Fund.

Read more about this in the newsletter.

Tory MEP expelled for standing against "antisemitic, racist homophobe"

(20 February 2010)

A leaked letter from Edward McMillan-Scott, a Vice-President of the European Parliament, to Conservative MPs shows just how divided the Conservative Party is. Mr McMillan Scott was summarily expelled from the Conservative Party because he stood for re-election as Vice-President against Michal Kaminski, on the grounds that the Polish MEP had "recent ... racist, homophobic and anti-semitic links". He felt that it was a point of principle that such a person should not take over from him as Vice-President for human rights and democracy.

He points out that the nomination of Michal Kaminski had not been endorsed through the procedures of the Tory MEP group. Having failed to become Vice-President, Mr Kaminski now leads the right-wing group to which the Tory MEPs belong.

Edward McMillan Scott has been a Tory MEP since 1984 and used to be leader of the Tory group. He has been cast aside by David Cameron for an extreme right-wing politician. You can read what he says on the website of our own Labour MEP, Richard Howitt.

Cameron's policy called "really dangerous" by Nobel Laureate

(10 February 2010)

Nobel laureate economist, Joseph Stiglitz has called the policy of beginning now to pay off Government debt "fiscal fetishism" and says that it is "really dangerous".   Joseph Stiglitz, who was chief economist at the World Bank and chaired President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, advises that "cutting back means the economy goes into downturn and the market will lose even more confidence, as it will trigger another recession ..."

Interviewed in The Independent on 9 February 2010, he said the idea that the markets could be appeased by a modest cut in the deficit, as David Cameron has suggested, was anthropomorphic stupidity. Instead, he urged Gordon Brown to hold his nerve, defy the markets and ignore those who want him to start reducing the budget deficit.

He added that it was "unconsionable" that the Government was being held to ransom by the very credit agencies which fouled up so badly over sub-prime mortages.

You can read the full interview here.

Council tax election bribe

(5 February 2010)

"After years of complaining that the Labour Government was not giving them enough money, the Tories at County Hall have suddenly decided that they do have enough and will not be putting up the Council tax," says David Kirkman, Labour's parliamentary candidate for North East Hertfordshire (pictured right).

"This could not have anything to do with the forthcoming General Election, could it? Surely they would not be putting services to the people of Hertfordshire at risk for electoral advantage. So, it must be that they have come to realise that their grant from the Labour Government - protected as it is by the mechanism which protects Hertfordshire from a sudden reduction to the level of other councils - is a very generous one."

Click here to read David's letter in the Letchworth and Baldock Comet.

Have you heard what David Cameron thinks of the Copenhagen Accord?

(22 January 2010)

No, neither have we.....

This is the most important issue facing the world, but the Tories are so divided on it that their leader is frightened to say anything at all. 

And here is why. A survey published on 20 January 2010 showed that, of 141 Tory candidates questioned, only 8 gave "reducing Britain's carbon footprint" a rating of 5 (most important) on a scale of 1 to 5. Not nearly as important, apparently, as reducing welfare bills (59) or cutting red tape (73). The top priority was reducing the budget deficit (112). The survey was conducted by the ConservativeHome website.

So, now we know. David Cameron may be sincere when he says that the issue of climate change is of the highest importance, but, if he were to be elected, he would be backed by a party which does not. Our children and grand-children deserve better than this.

Read more about the Copenhagen conference.

See what Labour has done for
the National Health Service

(5 January 2010)

Go and look at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage and see all the building work that is going on. Go and look at the County Hospital in Hertford - completely rebuilt and with a new Urgent Care Centre, so that you do not have to go to A&E if you cut yourself or need an X-ray. At Addenbrooke's in Cambridge a brand new eye unit opened last March. Remember that there are 40,000 more doctors than there were under the Tories and 83,000 more nurses.

Is this money wasted, as people say? Do you want to go back to waiting 18 months to go into hospital? The average now is 18 weeks and waiting more than 6 months has almost been  eliminated!

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