The Not So Loyal Speech. A Monument To 13 Years of Labour Failure

When the General Election finally happens Labour will have been in power for 13 years. Labour was elected with a massive majority in 1997, they promised reforming zeal and delivered nothing.

Their legacy is one of a failed economy crippled by debt and unlikely to recover for many many years.

An acute housing shortage, deliberately encouraged to continue boosting house prices to beyond economic sense.

Spending billions on “cutting child poverty”, while creating a tax credit system with overpayments and debt built in.

Despite the real difficulties young people have as registering as unemployed the highest ever levels of youth unemployment.

American levels of student debt being accepted as a norm. Removing a ladder of opportunity from the poorest.

Public service waste because services became driven by performance indicators, not service delivery.

The Queen’s speech today reflected a manifesto of promises that Labour should have tackled years ago, not 6 months before an election.

The proposed bills stand not as a promise of a bright New Labour future but as a monument to Labour failure.

Bribery Bill
This if passed would make it illegal to bribe a foreign official to obtain or retain business. Furthermore, if businesses fail to prevent a bribe being paid by their employees or by other firms on their behalf an offence would be committed.

I guess that the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair and the “estranged” husband of Labour Minister Tessa Jowell are grateful that this bill was not on the books previously.

Child Poverty Bill
This will enshrine into legislation a promise that was so badly broken by Labour, their desire to end child poverty by 2020. It forces the government to make annual reports to Parliament on the success of its strategies to end child poverty. This bill owes NOTHING to the aim of ending child poverty, it simply reflects a demand from Labour campaigners to enshrine into law Labour policy. This bill is as meaningless as its aim.

Equality Bill
Again a complete monument to Labour failure. The gap between rich and poor has never been wider, but this bill would require the whole public sector a duty to “narrow the gap between rich and poor”. Departmental wide responsibilities tend to mean no one is responsible.

This bill would also ban age discrimination outside of the workplace – such as when buying goods and services like healthcare. Does this mean the end of SAGA?

Business with more than 250 employees would have to report on gender differences on pay.

Labour finally wakes up to the power the Government has as a customer, not by directing LAs to properly control the amounts spent on suppliers, but by forcing Public bodies to use their £200bn of public procurement power “drive equality” in private sector firms.

Fiscal Responsibility Bill
The title is NOT a joke. This would place into law the promise to halve the budget deficit within four years. Labour is still attached to the Neo Cons. Parliament would be able to approve medium-term fiscal plans. Again, something previously shrouded in secret under Labour, but now a requirement in law?

Children, Schools and Families Bill
This is yet another bill ignoring student poverty, something Labour made worse when they replaced the previous Tory mix of loans and grants with loans and fees. Not exactly something proised in the Labour manifesto and with public finances in a disastrous state, something that will now take generations to tackle.

This bill shows yet again the Labour Nanny approach to education, while attempting to portray it as parental rights. Labour have learned nothing from the failure of performance indicators, so to prove the point they are making these indicators – guarantees. Parents will have a right to nag schools if they do not deliver. The schools will be given report cards.

Teaching to performance standards is the reason why school children can pass a test, but know nothing of the subject they are taught.

We should of course be grateful that this bill promises “greater flexibility” for primary schools to set their own curricula.

It would set a requirement that all young people receive at least one year of sex and relationships education. Those children from religious backgrounds would not, as now be able to opt out. This may or may not be a good thing, but it is hardly more parental power.

Home educators will have to be registered and inspected.

Flood and Water Management Bill
The floods of 2007 caused £3bn of damage, this bill will pass the financial responsibility to Councils. Surface water flooding would become their legal responsibility.

Sustainable drainage systems will have to be considered for new building developments, this is nothing new. Existing Planning law could achieve that.

Further powers will be given to the water companies to control customers’ usage during droughts. Again another sop to the French Government Water Industry.

Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Bill
This would make it an offence to use, produce, develop, acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer cluster munitions.
So why now when Labour has no time to dio anything? Why did they seek an exemption from a treaty ban in 2008?

The US and UK used nearly 13,000 cluster munitions containing an estimated 1.8 to 2 million submunitions in the three weeks of major combat. A total of 63 CBU-87 bombs were dropped by US aircraft between May 1, 2003 and August 1, 2006.

Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill
The one worthwhile part of this bill reminds me of right wing Tea-Baggers in the US. Labour finally propose ending the stupid Serious and Organised Crime Act ban on demonstrations around Parliament. So it will be ok to demonstrate against a potential Tory (Tory/Lib Dem) Government, but for most of the time Labour was in Government – not against them.

As long as they don’t start saying protest is patriotic.

It would give Parliament the ability to scrutinise treaties, while of course ignoring the fact Labour promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

It ends the by-election of hereditary peers to sit in House of Lords, which therefore reduces their number over time. It also allows for the disqualification of peers convicted of serious offences or subject to a bankruptcy order. I wonder who they are getting at?

It allows Peers to resign Peerages. Something that already has a precedent.

Crime and Security Bill
More Nanny and less tackling the real problems, as this introduces mandatory assessment of parenting needs when 10 to 15-year-olds are considered for an ASBO.

The amount of information police need to record when carrying out stop and search, I guess they are forgetting SUS laws. Yay to the Daily Mail agenda.

It gives police the power to bar suspected domestic violence offenders from their homes for a period, even if not charged. All very well, except of course it ignores the somewhat important principle of innocent before guilty, but who will house those barred from their own homes?

It would make it a legal requirement to store air guns safely.

Possession of a mobile phone in prison without authorisation would become a criminal offence.

Wheel-clamping businesses will be subject to a licence.

The DNA database will continue to grow. Adults who are arrested but not charged will have their DNA recorded for six years. Of course, when Labour politicos were arrested, they were not subject to fingerprinting and DNA testing. It would also allow the police to record DNA samples and fingerprints of sexual and seriously violent offenders returning to UK following a conviction overseas.

Digital Economy Bill
A disgusting and disgraceful sop to the music and film industry at the expense of Internet Service providers. A bought and paid for Government.

Of course in terms of technology, this bill does nothing to deal with the highly unfavourable tax regime this Government placed on IT workers. The consequence of this is that the UK games Industry, which was the 3rd largest in the World is slipping to 5th place and probably even worse.

Ofcom would be given a legal obligation the duty to assess the UK’s communications infrastructure every two years.

The digital radio switchover would happen by 2015.

Video games ratings would become compulsory for games designed for children aged 12 and above.

Channel 4 would be given a public service remit – despite the pressures it faces on advertising.

Energy Bill
Private companies will bee forced to issue rebates for fuel to poorer customers. Interesting as a fair chunk of the UK fuel industry and the Water industry is liked to the French government.

Financial Services Bill
This would establish a Council for Financial Stability, after all, the man who served as Chancellor for so many years was able to deliver Britain from Boom and Bust – NOT. It would be chaired by the chancellor, and comprising representatives of the Treasury, Bank of England and Financial Services Authority.

Strengthens the FSA to take “action” on pay of those in financial services, following the recent outcry over bonuses. So pay deals become more hidden. It also supposedly promises “action” in UK and somehow internationally, on bankers’ pay.

It would require banks and other financial firms to set up “living will” to make them easier to wind down in the event of a crisis. From “too big to fail” to how to fail.

It would bans unsolicited credit card cheques and enables the setting up of national money guidance service. Despite the fact that they exist already.

It also promises to allows groups of consumers to bring court actions against financial institutions. Again something consumers can do.

Personal Care at Home Bill
This election bribe would guarantee free personal care for the 280,000 people with the “highest needs”, such as those with serious dementia or Parkinson’s disease.

It provides free care to a further  166,000 people who would otherwise have to use their savings to contribute. It also promises to help 130,000 people needing to enter care homes for the first time to “regain their independence”. As well as adaptations to the neediest people’s homes to increase their independence.  Where is the money Gordo?

These bills are promised, but lack of Parliamentary time pretty much ensures that they will never see the light of day.

House of Lords Reform Bill
Promises that the Lords will be between 80% and 100% elected. States the government should not hold a majority in the second chamber and its members must be independent.Nice timing from a Party that will no longer be in Government. Legislate themselves in to a position of power.

International Development Spending Bill
Requires that 0.7% of gross national income is spent on development from 2013. This was in each Labour Manifesto and they continually failed to meet it. Gordon broke his promise to the poor of the World.

The promises on health care and housing of course failed to materialise.

A failed legislative agenda from a failed Government.

Falling Down

The United Kingdom is still stuck in the biggest and deepest recession on record.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have revealed that gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, confounding analysts’ predictions of an increase of 0.2 per cent.

Now spanning six consecutive quarters – a first since the ONS started compiling GDP figures back in 1955 – the UK is currently experiencing its longest period in recession on record.

The economy has now been contracting since early 2008.

Output fell almost entirely across the board, with the industries of construction, distribution, hotels and catering, transport and storage, and business services and finance all recording a decline.

The Bank of England is however optimistic. Why? Who knows? Maybe the Governor got a bit of a telling off for his last foray in to the political field.

The Bank of England confirms that the UK economy has shrunk by 6% in 18 months. Although it does not use optimistic language its report remains highly optimistic.

This chart shows the Bank of England prediction trend line for economic growth. The Bank sees the economy growing by 2.1 per cent next year, an amazing and unprecedented growth of four per cent in 2011 and an equally implausible 3.5 per cent in 2012.

Even using those highly optimistic growth rates it will take until 2012 for the economy to return to the output levels of 2007/2008.

These assumptions are however weak. They ignore the necessary but painful budget cuts that will have to be made by the Public Sector over the coming years. Taxes are covering only £4 out of £5 being spent by this Government, the rest is borrowing.

Although there will be some reduction in borrowing from growth, that growth will not be enough to get the budget out of deficit.

Indeed, with a growing elderly population, changes made to the Pension Credit scheme, including a pre election boost to pensioners, will only continue adding to the bill.

The Government is already talking of cuts. Ed Balls has offered up £2 billion of cuts in the Education budget.

Tax rises are also going to be harsh. You can not cut £175 billion of spending without a dramatic rethink of the role of the State and that will not happen.

Everybody who lives in the UK will pay more for reduced public services.

This will impact on growth. A smaller pubic sector means less jobs. Increases in tax will hit investment.

Unwinding quantitative easing will not be easy. Yields on UK gilts will rise, which means increases in interest rates. The mini-bubble in parts of the housing market will therefore pop. To me that is probably one of the only good things. It was after all the housing bubble that got us in to this mess. The irony of the Labour years is that through Housing Associations, the Government spent billions on “affordable housing” and then gave billions to the banks to keep houses unaffordable. We need a different direction on housing.

So faced with even more tax rises, where do the jobs come from? Who knows. The UK is now deeply uncompetitive. Income tax rates are too high at too early a level, we should not be taxing those on minimum wage and we should not be treating someone on £35k as a top rate taxpayer. And although other Countries have a higher top rate theirs start at a much higher band.

Corporation tax is far steeper than in most of our competitor nations and the 2007 budget changes to screw over new businesses will not aid recovery. Small businesses have always been the fuel for economic growth.

The UK’s trend rate of growth prior to the recession was 2.75 per cent a year. That keeps the UK economy at below 2007/08 levels until 2015.

By that time almost every other large European economy will have outgrown us. Will Britain still get a seat at the table? Kind of explains why the G5 became the G8 and why it is now the G20.

With at least five years of hard slog to get back to where the economy in 2007, Cameron looks as though he will be picking up more than a poisoned chalice. The chalice itself is poison. It will be him and not Brown who will get the blame for the economic mess that will take a generation to recover. People have short memories and it is easy to blame the ones in power NOW for the damage done by a previous administration. The Republicans are already doing it in America. “New Labour” will start the blame game on day one.

Interesting times ahead.

Has Gordon Doomed Himself?

Guido Fawkes refers to Gordon Brown as Jonah. Gordon Brown has an awful record of offering support to football teams or companies – only to have disaster follow.

Well he has now cursed himself.

His response to a petition calling on him to resign, one of the largest petitions on the Downing Street website was entirely reminiscent of a football chairman declaring that his Manager has the full support of the board.

The Prime Minister is completely focused on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As the Prime Minister has consistently said, he is determined to build a stronger, fairer, better Britain for all.

Well we are all a lot poorer, income inequality is worse under Brown than under Thatcher and unlike the US, which saw its deficit come in lower than expected, the deficit in the UK is worsening and we are still not out of the recession.

Bye Bye Gordon. Time to go.

There is one man to blame for the rise of the BNP

The BBC Question Time programme gave Nick Griffin the oxygen of publicity and he choked on it.

Jack Straw was useless. However, if you draw up a list of politicians who engage in Muslim bashing for cheap political points, Jack Straw is up there with Nick Griffin. After all it wasn’t Griffin that said he would not talk to women wearing a burkah.

David Dimbelby tried too hard. He wanted a posh version of the Jerry Springer show in order to boost ratings. His show invited a Nazi and Dimbleby just had to show that he was not a racist sympathiser.

The provocativability of the audience was guaranteed. The Mail is wrong. If you took any group of 200 people from Britain, the same level of disgust would be shown to the BNP.

The BBC did not as Peter Hain suggest, boost the BNP. He should look closer to home.

Poverty and fear drives extremism.

The house price bubble and lack of social housing.
Unemployment.
Taxes hitting the poorest.
“British jobs for British workers”.
MPs expenses.
The Government created monster of “Radical Islam”.

All of these were fostered by the man Peter Hain is happy to call his Leader.

Peter Hain – your Leader is helping the BNP. Gordon Brown the best recruitment tool for the BNP.

If you push the politics of fear you get the politics of hate.

Gordon Brown A Saviour?

Can we replace this Gordon Brown, self professed saviour of the World with this one?

Xavier Gordon Brown is the youngest person to ever to get an A* at GCSE. In mathematics. Something the Saviour Gordon appears less than good at.

Sion Simon is Scum Part 2

Sion Simon the Labour MP for Birmingham Erdington who attacked Susan Boyle, ran a stupid smear against David Cameron that completely backfired and got Cameron even more support, called Labour Party rebels “deserters” and then backed an early campaign to oust Tony Blair, has now been made “Minister for Creative Industries”.

Why? Well it can not be for his support for those creative industries. After all, Susan Boyle was seen as a national treasure, he is simply a joke.

It can not be because he is good on tv.

(By the way here is blog this idiot runs, that he is says he not interested in (he does not allow comments) – and he may learn too late the way you could have kept a Labour Government was not to point out the opposition – but to run the Country well, something his Party singularly failed to do).

Hmm – must be something to do with this crappy voting record then.

Voting record (from PublicWhip)

How Siôn Simon voted on key issues since 2001:

* Voted moderately against a transparent Parliament.
* Voted a mixture of for and against introducing a smoking
ban.
* Voted strongly for introducing ID cards. votes, speeches
* Voted very strongly for introducing foundation hospitals.
* Voted strongly for introducing student top-up fees.
* Voted very strongly for Labour’s anti-terrorism laws.
* Voted very strongly for the Iraq war.
* Voted very strongly against an investigation into the Iraq
war.
* Voted very strongly for replacing Trident.
* Has never voted on the hunting ban.
* Voted moderately for equal gay rights.
* Voted a mixture of for and against laws to stop climate change.

He is also another MP who likes to expense it up. He claimed his stamp duty, and even a MacBook Air and all the accessories on expenses. A £399 laptop, obviously would not have been good enough for him. Who is the young person who keeps getting expensed and was that a legitimate claim for the student/teacher edition of Microsoft Office either to Microsoft or the taxpayer? Perhaps an explanation is due for all the money expensed to Susan Hayes? Who is she, what “strategic” advice was given necessary to his work as an MP?

The Labour MP, who was once happily in the pay of Rupert Murdoch, now gets to decide in the run up to an election year, what regulations are imposed on digital media.

The Two Trillion Dollar Man

UK Government Debt has now exceeded $1 trillion.

The BBC has reported that the official measure the total outstanding government debt rose to an all time high of £799bn, or 56.6% of UK GDP.

The Labour Government borrowed £13 billion in June. An amount that back before 1997 Blair called shameful and the “cost of failure” when that was the total borrowed for the whole year.

Whichever measure is used at the average exchange rate of £=$1.40, we now have over a $trillion of Government debt and more than a $trillion in privately held debt. When people were warning about the level of private debt held during the 2005 General Election – Brown and Blair both dismissed the issue.

Unlike the US, which increased short term borrowing to stimulate the economy, Brown, because of previous financial incompetence was unable to offer anything of real value. The reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% was worth little to the consumer. This reduction is coming to an end soon.

Is it any wonder that this is how Labour tried to sell its record to the voters of Norwich North?

Is it any wonder then that Brown had his arse handed to him in Norwich? A 16.5% swing that resulted in the a Conservative vote total that was more than the Labour and Liberal Democrat vote combined.

• Chloe Smith (Con) 13,591 (39.5%)
• Chris Ostrowski (Lab) 6,243 (18.16%)
• April Pond (LD) 4,803 (13.97%)
• Glenn Tingle (UKIP) 4,068 (11.83%)
• Rupert Read (Green) 3,350 (9.74%)
• Craig Murray (Ind) 953 (2.77%)
• Robert West (BNP) 941 (2.74%)
• Bill Holden (Ind) 166 (0.48)
• Howling Laud (Loony) 144 (0.42%)
• Anne Fryatt (NOTA) 59 (0.17%)
• Thomas Burridge (Libertarian) 36 (0.1%)
• Peter Baggs (Ind) 23 (0.07%)

In fact the Conservative majority of (21.37%) 7,348 was higher than the Labour vote.

The Brown Party in a strong could once again only get 18% of the vote.

Gordon, you were sent a clear message – Gordon,  Go Now.

New Labour New Shame. Speeding Motorists Deserve Rape

I really do hope that this is just a Departmental Head or a Junior Minister floating an idea. A very very bad idea. This story even as a proposal should earn that proponent a place on Keith Olbermann’s Worst “Person in the World” slot.

According to the Mail on Sunday , some complete bastard in this “no cuts” Labour Government wants to cut serious criminal injuries compensation payments for those convicted of minor offences, to include speeding.

The image links back to the Mail on Sunday article.

The Mail On Sunday goes on to report

In 2006, 857,000 fines averaging £142 were imposed in magistrates courts for driving offences.

They included 152,461 for speeding (average fine £121), 26,043 for failing to obey traffic directions (£95), 23,374 for careless driving (£159), 5,820 for parking offences (£65), 5,009 for lighting offences (£60) and 666 for noise nuisance (£66).

In the cases of murder victims, the rule applies to the deceased and any applicant for compensation.

So the amount paid to the parent of a murdered child will be reduced if the parent has been fined for a motoring offence in the past five years.

If the murder victim had been fined for a motoring offence, the amount payable to his children would also be reduced by the same proportion.

That reduction would be between £1,100 and £1,650, depending on how long had passed since the conviction, with a further deduction of between ten and 15 per cent from the sum paid to cover the victim’s funeral expenses.

Whichever idiot the so called Ministry of Justice got to speak on behalf of the Government just made it sound even worse.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman confirmed that the changes in compensation payments would affect motorists convicted of minor offences – but denied it was unfair and insisted the budget was not being cut.

‘The UK’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is one of the most generous and comprehensive in the world. Each application will continue to be judged on a case-by-case basis,’ he said.

‘We need to recognise that compensation is paid with taxpayers’ money and this has always been taken into account when compensating those who have already cost the public purse.’

Even on the best reading of this, that it does not just affect motorists, but also those slapped with one of Blair’s stupid on the spot fines, it is a slap in the face for those raped or who have had a family member murdered. It is the Government saying to the victim, well you are a bit of a chav, or you do speed – so you kind of deserve it.

Again, if this is true, I would not suggest a Government minister deserved to be punched in the head, or worse, for this but if they were, perhaps they too would be less deserving of compensation. This person deserves the mad PUMAs set on them. The crazy ones and the not so crazy ones. Rape victims are no less a victim because they happened to be speeding within the past however many years.

h/t Timothy Wallace.

Change I can possibly believe in. Conservative MPs propose acceptable Lords Reform.

Tony Blair and his Labour Government provided the single biggest argument for retention of the House of Lords in 2006 when they attempted to pull a fast one by innocently legislating for what was an Enabling Act. Their intentions may well have been innocent, but the countless abuses of the 2006 Serious and Organised Crime Act, tell a different story.

The Save Parliament campaign managed to defeat it. A coalition of internet nerds and the House of Lords.

In 2008, it looked as though they were going to try again. As part of the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill. SpyBlog and Dizzy Thinks picked up on it.

If there was a fully elected Second Chamber during most of the years of the Blair Government, they would still have a large majority now, leaving Legislation largely unchecked. Given that the bunch of Labour lackeys in the Commons did nothing to stand up to this Government, where would Britain be now? Everyone under house arrest for parking fines, with 90 days of detention for all?

A second chamber must be able to hold the main chamber to account and it must be able to provide a proper basis for revision of legislation that a highly whipped House of Commons will rarely do.

The House of Commons has already voted for Lords “reform”. Much of the debate was based on old class war politics of attacking hereditary peers, who have been remarkably independent throughout all Government terms. It is in part why the Blair Government did not like them, but he was not afraid of using class war to get his agenda.

The Working Peers by and large have not worked. They have become Party lackeys and just follow what the (admittedly less strict) Party Whips say. In order to firm up the Whipping system of the Lords, Brown has heaped largesse on them. This Government has more Ministers from the Lords than almost any before universal suffrage. Not bad for an unelected Prime Minister. The advantage to the Whips of spreading that Government largesse, is that what is given can be taken away and given to someone else.

I am deeply sceptical of plans to mess around with the Lords, although I do accept that change is being forced on it and so reform or abolition of the House of Lords is imminent.

This is why, having read the proposals by Sir George Young and Andrew Tyrie I am actually somewhat impressed.

Their report to The Constitution Unit recommends that all new members of the House of Lords should be “term peers”, serving a single term limited to three parliaments. It also says the second chamber should be 80 per cent elected through a system of proportional representation, with a minority appointed element of independent experts.

No Government would be able to secure a majority in the Second Chamber, therefore mitigating the risk of any future Government attempting to pull another enabling act or 90 days detention trick again.

It also calls for the Appointments Commission to undertake the appointment of all peers, not only ‘non-political’ appointees, as a way to break the link with political patronage and donations. Another crime against the constitution that Blair and his cronies got away with.

It even gives a sop to those wanting abolition of the House of Lords, with a mild proposal to call it The Upper House.

The full report is here in .pdf format.

Everybody Do The Post 9/11 Dance

I have just watched Channel 4’s excellent documentary, “True Stories, Taking Liberties”, a two hour show detailing the rights that have been removed from UK citizens by the Blair / Brown Government.

UK residents hid safely under their beds watching as the Government dealt with the terrorists. A small step here, a small step there. Well UK. You have no rights. None. Those rights are now at the discretion of the Police and the Home Secretary.

Thank you New Labour, I feel so much safer.