Time To Change The Tune

There now follows (an extremely funny) party political p!sstake broadcast from the Green Party!

SPARE ANY LOOSE CHANGE GOVERNOR?

I can't be the only person fed up to the back teeth of the ConDem coalitions lame excuses for the massive cuts they intend to inflict on our public services next week, but surely to god some amongst the Liberal Democrat faithful have some respect left to at least challenge the garbage put around by their front bench as they cosy up ever closer to their new Tory chums. All of a Sudden it is Brown not the Banks which caused the current crisis! They also never tire of telling us that:

"The deficit was far worse than we were led to believe it was before the election"

Not true. First of all the three main parties as always before a general election had full access to the red book and nothing was hidden from them, so how Vince Cable can live with his lazy lie of the UK debt being now so far worse than it was before the election is beyond me And then to use his dodgy mathematics as an excuse to dump his parties pledge to scrap tuition fees and now support a market led solution to double or treble the tuition fee and then put interest on Student loans is morally bankrupt! Both parties also conveniently fail to mention that in the month after the election the deficit forecast was reduced by £10bn making the Tories immediate cuts of £7bn unnecessary.

"We have never in our history owed as much as a nation they cry"

Again not true, the two charts below, which the Tories and Liberals don't want the public to see prove once again how desperate they are to shift attention from the real reason they are cutting our public services. Of course in real cash terms we have never owed more and also never earned more but the only true comparison you can make is as a % of GDP. Now admittedly the figures below only take us back to1700! when national debt was first recorded! So I can't speak any debt left by the dinosaurs or by the Bank of Rome, but they still make very interesting viewing

The National Debt began the 20th century at about 30 percent of GDP. It jerked above 150 percent in World War I and stayed high. Debt breached 200 percent during World War II. Debt declined to 50 percent of GDP by the 1970s and dipped to 25 percent by 1990. The National Debt began a rapid increase in the aftermath of the worldwide bank led financial crisis of 2008.

The National Debt began when William III engaged a syndicate of City merchants to market an issue of government debt. The syndicate became the Bank of England, and HM government debt began a century-long climb, financing Marlborough’s wars, wars against the French, against the North American colonial rebels, and peaking in 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars at over 200 percent of GDP. Government debt exploded in World War I and World War II and then equalled the level of 1815 reaching over 200 percent of GDP. Debt declined below 50 percent of GDP by the 1970s.

So lets all now be honest before next weeks announcements as to the reasons for any cuts to public services They are of a purely political not a fiscal nature. History shows that to invest in Public Services to grow the economy is as good a plan as any in reducing the debt. Its jobs, growth and public confidence that they can spend (within their limited means) we need not a massive increase in the unemployment and benefit uptake and the rising welfare bill to pay for it. Clem Attlee after the second World War faced a national debt almost five times higher as a % of GDP to that which we face today and yet he managed to build a National Health Service, Founded the Welfare State, Built more Council Homes than any government ever has past or present, and nationalised the Railways, The Mines, together with our Gas, Electric, and Water Supplies. He set post war Britain back to work and was rewarded with growth and employment of such a scale that even the Old Tory Bore Harold Macmillan had to declare "We have never had it so good"

Britain does have a problem with debt though, but it is private not public debt that threatens to ruin us. The post Thatcher years of must have house ownership coupled with rising housing prices and the encouragement of credit to pay for things we never knew we really needed has left our personal finances in tatters.

If the current government can't sleep at night for worrying over the £772 billion total UK Public Debt then we should all be having nightmares about the £1.4 trillion record level of UK Private debt! as this chart below shows:

So when will the Liberals and the Tories own up to us that they have been economical with the truth over not only who is to blame for the current state of the countries finances and stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes as to why they plan to decimate our public services and play poker with our future risking a double dip recession all in the name of political ideology.

(with grateful thanks to www.averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com and www.boffyblog.blogspot.com and www.ukpublicspending.co.uk)

The real rats are at the Guildhall

An ex sailor contacted me today from St Andrews Road in Northampton, desperate for help because his house has been overrun with rats!

Several mild winters, his proximity to the river via Millers Meadow and refuse sacks being placed on the street days before collection have made him and his family a target for hordes of rattus norvegicus, and his is rightly concerned of the damage this could have on the health of his two young children (10 months and 2 yrs) and his disabled partner. Being an ex sailor he understands very well the dangers of Weil's disease and his weekly shopping bill has also increased by the need for him to disinfect all the surfaces in the kitchen prior to cooking.

The trouble for my constituent though is that he is living on benefit because his wife is disabled, and he is the main carer for their two young children, so money is tight. So he phoned the council in a cry for help to reduce the infestation. He has also tried domestic rat poison but to no avail. So in desperation he rung the council.

"Can't help you" came the reply, "budget cuts"

As of April 1st 2009 the Liberal Democrat council has withdrawn its free service to those on benefits to save a few bob. But as many of us predicted would happen, it is not those who can afford to call out a pest control operative at £65 a time that would suffer, it is those who can't afford a private service that are being placed in the front line.

What sort of false economy is this? I can understand to a degree reductions in any subsidised service for those who can afford to pay, but by the council not dealing with infestations in houses where the option of a paid service is not a realistic expectation then all they will do is make the problem harder to deal with in the general area and spread the colony.

Local Authorities have a duty under section 2 of the "Prevention of Damage by pests act 1949" to take action to ensure any infestation is avoided and dealt with, but it seems that our friendly Liberal Democrats at the Guildhall believe that their duty ends at serving notices and fines to householders irrespective as to whether or not they can afford to take action themselves. How about some action being taken against Network Rail? or the Environment Agency? or Anglian Water? or even themselves for cutting back on treatment on their own land?

Surely it is in the whole community's interest for them to take collective action as a local authority in such circumstances? They must act NOW!

Day by day, week by week the real problems facing people everyday as a result of the massive cuts implemented by the Liberal DemocRATS at the Town Hall are being revealed, supplys of black bins are in very scarse supply and not being delivered to residents on time, street sweeping has been reduced, flytipping out of control, grass not being cut as regular as it was turning the roadside into the new "wildlife areas" so trumpeted by the portfolio holder at the time the cuts were sold to us as service improvements.

So how will they sell this one? Free Pets for hard up families with under fives?

So today I am calling on them to get real for once, and accept that this crazy, ill thought out policy needs badly reviewing and changing immediately before the problem escalates into a real infestation, with real health consequences for local residents. I don't think the rats mind one bit whose house they infest? and once they are in one house they can breed far more easily in the warm, and then move in next door, and so on.

What would the cost be of reinstating a free service for those on benefits? or even a subsidised service at an affordable level? And what will be the cost of them not doing so?

Democracy? Sold to lowest bidder.

At 5pm on Monday 29th June the Liberal Democrat Administration on Northampton Borough Council issued a Press Release informing the recipients that the Council would be "market testing" all of it's services and looking to outsource through privatisation and or partnership with other councils vast swathes of it's current in house provision.

No I haven't made and error, it is a Liberal Democratic Council, not a Tory one but there is little that is democratic about the way they have come to such a decision. For a start, despite the noises from the Lib Dem front bench in parliament critical of government ministers briefing the press before Parliament, their party in Local Government act just as crassly if not worse. The local press were the first to know of their plans with the details not being made available to elected local Councillors from any of the party's until the next day at 10am and then only on request.

It is not just the opposition that has been kept in the dark, it seems as if not even the Liberal Democratic group on the Council have discussed the plans! Andrew Simpson their Parliamentary candidate in Northampton North must be beside himself this morning, just as it seems as if Sally Keeble had come to the rescue of his parliamentary ambitions with her 'home flipping' expense exploits, his colleagues on the Council drop a bombshell on his doorstep which will keep his party the wrong side of the popularity fence right up until election day.

Surely their group discuss their forward plans? Surely they consider the potential political fall out of every decision they take? Surely if you were a Liberal Democrat Councillor you would expect to be told by your group leader what was going to happen on Council rather than hear it second hand from another Councillor who had been tipped off that the press had been tipped off? And surely you would think a Liberal, let alone Democratic Council would liaise more with it's Trade Union staff before dropping such a bombshell on the workforce?

No doubt the real reason for the "market testing" is to cut the budgets once again. The Council Leader will give us all assurances that it will only happen if the savings are there and if it is in our best interests, but if that was the case then why the big press release? Any Council can review its contractual arrangements for the provision of it's services as and when they come up for renewal? In fact they are obliged to do so. Any Council can make a saving outsourcing services in years one and two when contractors are keen to get your business. But do they ever stick to the contract without adding on variations? or reducing standards? Perhaps they should ask their colleagues on other Lib Dem Councils who I am sure will be happy to tell them of the perils of trying to save a few quid at the expense of the public works.

So why the big announcement? And why a major review rather than a natural examination as contracts expire? It is my firm belief that if this destructive process is allowed to progress unchallenged then we could lose the very reasoning for the Council itself. If we don't run our Street Sweeping and Refuse and Leisure Services and we sell off all our Housing Stock and ask 'Partners' to run any other services like IT and Personnel, then our councillors will become little more than business managers turning up periodically to agree the let contracts. (a bit like theTory County Council that they are always criticizing)

Northampton Borough Council should be preparing itself, and its case to Government Ministers to be a Unitary Authority responsible for all services across Northampton, but instead the current Liberal Democrat Leadership is planning (without consultation,even amongst themselves) to turn us into Britain's Largest Parish Council.

Will the last one to leave the Guildhall please ask the private contractor to switch off the lights!

Not just sitting on the fence but repainting it!

Liberal Democrats bless their cotton socks and sandals are well known for their fence sitting and inability to make a decision. But their behaviour at the Guildhall last night really did set new levels of indecisiveness and deceit.For those not familiar with the tediums of local government I will explain. We have a system of "Call In" on decisions we think have been taken wrongly by the administration. These "Call Ins" if backed by 2 councillors are heard by a supposedly non political "Scrutiny Committee"

So last night I initiated a call in (backed by the Tory opposition) of a decision taken by the Liberal Democrats to alter the way it liaises with its Council tenants. The Council didn't like the previous "elected" tenants body and wants to scrap it in favour of a "selected" panel.

My call in challenged the lack of consultation on these proposals prior to the Cabinet making their decision. We were able to prove that only a handful of selected residents had been consulted and that even Councillors on the Cabinet were only given 16 pages of a 78 page report drawn up by outside consultants. The Council had not followed the best practice outlined by the Department for Communities and Local Government and they only proposed to consult residents in the future on their own preferred option rather than giving them a real choice of all three options outlined in the report.

They were bang to rights, and they knew it. So what did they do? Well a "Call in" is either found to be invalid and falls, or valid and therefore recommendations are sent back to Cabinet (a bit like the House of Lords returning business to the Commons) to rethink or amend their proposals.

But this is the Northampton Liberal Democrats we are dealing with. So one of the Polit Bureau Cllr Paul Varnsverry rewrote the council rules (to the amazement and expressed concern of the Borough Solicitor) by rejecting the call in, whilst at the same time promising to make "Informal" suggestions to the Cabinet over their concerns. The vote that followed went purely on party lines with all of the Lib Dems supporting this ridiculous diversion from having to admit their own Cabinet may have got it wrong.

So the Cabinet get off scot free. They don't have to change anything, they can just have a cosy behind closed doors chat about where they may have gone wrong. Tenants have no comfort as to what will happen next, and members of the public (not for the first time) left the Guildhall with a nasty taste in their mouth akin to "Cover up"

What is wrong with being wrong? Why do they feel unable to follow the council rules and if necessary say to their own leadership through the formal procedure laid down that "We think there is a problem here that you need to address"

I upset a few of them last night by suggesting they would follow a party whip on this matter and vote the call in down whatever it's merits. A couple of them angrily informed me that was not so, and I have to accept their word. But when all Liberal Democrats present, back an unconstitutional motion, to vote down a valid call in, on the promise of a behind closed doors word in the ear of the leader, then you have to question whether or not the group needs a whip in the first place.

This lot it seems would vote for the reinstatement of George Bush as President if their leadership told them it was a good idea.

Constructive criticism, whatever its source, together with proper scrutiny of decisions should both be welcomed by all those in positions of power. But not in Northampton it seems.

And when they go to these extraordinary measures to try to save face and spin the truth then you really start to worry about the future of local government in our town.