Glenn Goodall

May be this is just a story to plug his new book but…

There have been some odd mutterings from the war criminal Tony Blair today. He practically admits the failing of the last Labour Government: i.e. they failed to tackle the deficit, they failed to reform welfare and they failed to reform the NHS.

In the Telegraph he practically stabs his friends in the back saying of Brown:

Political calculation, yes. Political feelings, no. Analytical intelligence, absolutely. Emotional intelligence, zero

Blair goes on to state that the Tories and Lib Dems have come together to deal with Labour’s legacy, and all the Labour Party is able to do right now is fight amongst itself. Until Labour politicians can admit to the mess that they left the country in and come up with ideas about how to fix it, they will never be fit to run the country again.

I couldn’t agree more - this even works locally!

Chief secretary to the Treasury visits Reading.

Yesterday Danny Alexander MP, chief secretary to the Treasury, held a question and answer session at Reading Town hall. He answered questions from and listened too various members of the business community and voluntary sector and local authorities. On Government spending cuts, he pointed out that Labour had been recklessly spending £150 billion more than was gathered in taxes.

Labours true Legacy.

When you consider Labour’s effect on our economy and the deficit, it really isn’t such a glowing report:

• Labour doubled the national debt and left us with the biggest deficit in the G20. The Coalition have to clean up Labour’s mess to get the economy moving.
• Labour were already planning 20 per cuts - but failed to tell us where they would come from. If Labour don’t like what the Coalition are doing, they need to come up with an alternative plan!
• The Coalition will have to carry out this unavoidable deficit reduction plan in a way that strengthens and unites the country. It’ll be tough but fair. All whilst protecting the NHS and the most vulnerable.

Labour ‘activists’ have been wittering on and whining about how terrible the Coalition cuts have been. They even had a protest outside the Civic offices in Reading to denounce these cuts… Yet they are unable to offer ANY useful alternatives nor are they able (or willing) to say what they would have cut if they had been in Gov’t.

In addition, local Labour hacks have been constantly making personal attacks on our Councils Lead members. This just shows how low they will go. Our late Lib Dem Leader in Reading would often say “attack the policy, not the person” - I couldn’t agree more, and I feel Labour need to gain a little dignity and heed that advice.

The New Labour party are THE progressive party! HA!

Yes, the party that brought us several wars (one of which was illegal and another was a bit dubious) despite the majority of citizens being against them, expensive National ID cards tied to an unsecured database, removed the 10p tax rate at the expense of those on low incomes, did precious little to reduce child poverty, acted as poor losers after the last general election and brought us closer to a police state than at any other time in our history… amongst other things… Yes, they clearly are progressive!

[Hat tip to WAS]

Recently, at one of his town hall meetings (central London) Lib Dem Leader and Deputy PM NickClegg said that housing benefit payments were more important than Trident.

The press, once again, made out that this was the end of the Lib Dem/Tory administration… but is it really? The Lib Dem view is to not have a like-for-like replacement of Trident since it is an out dated relic from the cold war. This view hasn’t changed, so why wouldn’t Nick speak out against Trident replacement? Especially when the already cash-strapped gov’t no thanks to years of reckless Labour control would have to find around £20bn in order to pay for Tridents successor.

The last failed totalitarian and not at all progressive Labour gov’t had ring-fenced the budget for Trident replacement. But now it looks like the funding for Trident will come out of the MoD budget, directly.

This is a very interesting turn of events, and I wonder if Military Chiefs will be so  keen to replace Trident as they have been… Or will they opt for a cheaper cruise missile based system? When you consider that the entire fleet of Tornado GR4’s could be scrapped as a result of Defence savings, will Military Chiefs decide to pay for Trident or these aircraft? Hmmm… Ponder…

Last Tuesdays full Council meeting was interesting to say the least!

This was the first meeting with our Coalition running the show, and the down-beat faces of the Labour party members said it all.

It was also very clear that the two coalition groups worked very well together. This may seem strange to some (and even to me at times) but after years of Labour totalitarianism, both groups want to make changes for the better and for the good of Reading.

The first order of business:

The first item dealt with the ‘Coalition agreement‘ and, predictably, Labour had a large number of sour amendments. Each of these tried to pin the Coalition down to either an uncosted spending commitment or policy fitting Labours agenda.

However, with no attempt by Labour to discuss these amendments in advance and the fact that there were 5 (one Lib Dem was away, would usually be 6) more coalition members than Labour - this was a doomed strategy from the start!

One amendment called for increasing recycling rates. Since, under Labour, this level had only hit 30 % with other councils nearby hitting 60+% I felt this was a ‘too little too late’ gesture.  Equally, Labour had an outdated ‘one size fits all’ attitude, so the prospect of some area’s getting weekly collections was too much for them! Their ex-Environment lead said:

“residents would will get lazy if we have weekly collections”

Also during one of the debates, one seasoned Labour Councillor called the Lib Dems ‘prisoners of the Tories’ and then compared the Lib Dem group to NAZI collaborators! This was a shameful display and just shows how desperate Labour have become.

The ex-Deputy Leader of the Council stated that:

“[the Coalition have] got a lot of work to do”

Too right! Labour have left the finances in a right state and had put off making several key decisions!

The next best line from the night came from the ex-Leader of the Council who said that:

“the budget deficit is not that bad”

Yes love, the economy is SO rosey and we’ve never had it so good! Hmmmm…

Each amendment failed, some debates were closed down after going round in circles for some time, much to the protest of Labour members. Although this wasn’t ideal, the item was heard for 1 and half hours so I think they had ample time.

The finally the item passed 25 to 20.

Rest of the Business:

The next seven items passed fairly smoothly and included licensing strip clubs, finally adopting the long awaited Tree Strategy and some other procedural items.

Then it came to the motions to Council - all from Labour.

One was on the Royal mails decision to  stop using bikes to deliver post. Improving Reading for cycling is one of the Coalitions core points so this was of great interest. Unfortunately, the motion proposer seemed more interested in the views of the union reps than that of the actual workers… Labours old politics continues.

Another interesting motion spoke about signing up to Friends of the Earth’s ‘get serious about CO2′ campaign. Something I, and other Lib Dem members, have already signed up to as an individual. After having several motions of this type kicked back by Labour - this was interesting to see.

New Lead Councillor for Environment, Warren Swaine, amended this to show what the new Coalition had planned. Unlike Labour aspirations, the Coalition will actively go for measures to limit climate change. The time for gestures is over and its time for action!

The lone Green party member gave a speech at this point saying:

“..if people want me to vote for their amendments they should show me in advance”

May be if he held the balance of power or opened up a dialogue with us, rather than just with Labour, we would. But he has clearly pinned his colours to the Labour mast by voting with them at every opportunity and having a joint protest out side the Civic. Which is all actually quite disappointing because I was actually looking forward to a true independent on the Council - critisising and scrutinising the Leading group and the opposition. But from the performance that night - there would seem to be 20 Labour councillors…

He then described the amendment as

“fiddling round the edges”

I would suggest he look at his Labour chums track record as a comparison, before passing judgement!

The meeting ended at a little after 11pm…

I look forward to the next meeting, but its not till  October.

This may be old new to some, but I thought I should mention it…

Under the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition gov’t there will be no third runway expansion at Heathrow and the plans have been formally cancelled!

Both the Conservative and Lib Dem manifestos had pledges to scrap the third runway, while Labour fully supported the scheme.

In addition, any further runway expansions at Gatwick and Stansted have been refused. Also the Air Passenger Duty will be replacement of with a per flight duty - as per the Liberal Democrat manifesto.

This should have a major impact on delaying climate-change, but there is still a very long way to go…

So, it’s happened and the Coalition have put forwards their emergency budget. I’m sure we will hear countless Labour supports shouting “wont someone think of the children.”  But the facts are that after years of Labour rule they have left our country with a mountain of debt. Every minute gov’t has to spend an eye-watering £80,000 interest on the national debt racked up by Labour, that’s over £800 million a week. If action wasn’t taken now then the markets would force us into even more drastic measures as they have in Greece and Spain.

Look through the Budget and you will see key policies Liberal Democrats campaigned for being put into effect. Also, these measures will ensure that the burden of deficit reduction is shared fairly across society:

• The £1,000 increase in the Income Tax allowance will mean that 880,000 low paid workers will be freed from Income Tax altogether. This is the first step towards delivering the Lib Dem manifesto commitment to ensure no-one pays tax on the first £10,000 they earn.
• The Budget puts in place the Lib Dem promise of a new tax on banks, ensuring that they help to pay to clear up the mess left by the financial crisis.
• Top earners will pay a full 10% more in Capital Gains Tax than under Labour, with no loopholes or tapers or get-out clauses. That change helps ensure those with the broadest shoulders take the greatest strain.
• The Coalition will guarantee that pensioners get a fair deal, putting into effect the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment for a “triple lock”, so state pensions rise every year in line with earnings, inflation, or by 2.5%, whichever is the highest. Never again will pensioners be allowed to fall behind.
• The Coalition Government will not let regions, towns or cities that depend heavily on the public sector be forgotten. That’s why this Budget establishes a regional growth fund to ensure those parts of the country get meaningful support to help create jobs and opportunities for all.
• Tackling Child Poverty remains at the heart of the government’s approach (something Labour did very little about). So while the Coalition have decided to cut child tax credits for those who can most afford it, they have increased tax credits for the poorest families and put up to £2 billion into child tax credits to help ensure children of all backgrounds get a fair start in life.

That said, I am not too happy about 20 % VAT but it has to happen, I guess. Likewise, I doubt many Labour supporters were very impressed with top-up fees when they were introduced!

Oh, and what happened to the £10,000 tax free allowance? Well, that little gem was always going to be staggered.

Honestly, I believe it’s better to have this Lib/Con Coalition gov’t in power than a Labour or Conservative minority government. They would have lost the budget and there would have been had another election. The Coalition can use the best ideas from two parties in order to tackle national debt, rather than have the same tired ideas from Labour.

Frankly, the economy is in a shocking state thanks to Labours mismanagement, and now it’s down to the Coalition to sort it out!

Harriet Harman asked the Lib Dems “how could they let down everyone who voted for them?” I am pretty sure that everyone in Labour knows too well how that is done…

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Update: See what WAS has to say on VAT.