A campaign diary

Who'll win the female vote?

2010-05-03T23:57:00.007+01:00

The Echo today ran an interesting piece on how women will vote.

The vox pop included Louise Ford of Essex Mums. Louise lives in Southend West. This is what she said:

A second contribution from Southend West came from Vanessa Dalton (not just a writer and mother of triplets, but also a talented singer)

One of the two contributors from outside my patch was Sara Arrow - a virtual friend of mine.

And the most convincing contribution from any of the candidates came from my good friend and party colleague, Susan Gaszczak

Cleaning up politics

2010-05-03T23:55:00.002+01:00

From the Echo, 3 May 2010.

Wednesday 31 March: Cleaning up

2010-04-02T00:16:00.003+01:00

In the morning I went out with the local team of volunteers who clean up along the Prittle Brook. Mike Grimwade, Chair of the local party and Liberal Democrat councillor for Prittlewell, and Bob Archell, Liberal Democrat candidate in Belfairs Ward also took part. It was quite incredible how much litter needed to be cleared.

After lunch, I went out to visit a local school. Very interesting visit.

Lots of correspondence to deal with too.

Tuesday 30 March: St Laurence

2010-03-31T00:49:00.002+01:00

The idea today was to spend the whole day in St Laurence, talking to residents. Sadly the weather got in the way in the morning.

In the afternoon, we got through a lot of work, before a cloudburst ended the session. Some really good results though. One of the interesting points was seeing people absorb the results of the television debate. I found this quite encouraging. A the simpler point was that it was good to see some old friends again. A really good session - pity about the rain!

In the evening I went to Leigh Folk Club, to see the Askew Sisters. I thought they were really good!

Catching up

2010-03-31T00:07:00.002+01:00

Thursday 18 March: On doorstep in Leigh all morning. Afternoon off!
Friday 19 March: Mostly dealing with some urgent press enquiries. It would be good to have some paid staff sometimes!
Saturday 20 March: visit the farmers' market in Leigh, then move on to a Leigh coffee morning. Members are very busy indeed! In the afternoon, out talking to supporters in West Leigh.
Sunday 21 March: Out in Eastwood.
Monday 22 March: morning, visit to a local school in Leigh. Afternoon, visiting some people who had been in touch with me from Belfairs ward.
Tuesday 23 March: In the morning, delivering with the Belfairs team.In the afternoon, out in Eastwood. Very good response.
Wednesday 24 March: spent the day talking to residents in St Laurence. Really good response. Good to call back on some people I had spoken to earlier in the year, and also to put a face to the names of people who had been in touch by mail or 'phone.
Thursday 25 March: in the morning, out in Leigh, talking to residents. In the afternoon, out in St Laurence. Another good session here - a big team, and part of the time spent going back to areas I had surveyed last year. Downside was a rain shower that kept us in for the first hour of the session.
Evening, out to Pecha Kucha, for the first half of the show, then moved on to the Liberal Democrat President's Supper. Good event.
Friday 26 March: Canvassing in Blenheim ward. Another strong team. Interesting to put houses to faces on a couple of occasions.
Saturday 27 March: the Leigh coffee morning was in Belfairs (don't ask) But canvassing beforehand was in Leigh. Out again in the afternoon for an exciting session of canvassing. And then out in the evening for a very successful Eastwood/St Laurence quiz night.
Sunday 28 March: out in the afternoon with a great team in Eastwood. met some great people!
Monday 29 March: Not a great morning (stuck inside). But the "Ask the Chancellors" debate was great. Big win for Vince.

Wednesday 17 March: Busiest day of the campaign

2010-03-17T23:41:00.003Z

8.30 Writing press releases
9.45 Picked up to go and talk to residents.
10.00 On the doorstep in Prittlewell. Some good conversations.
11.00 Visit to a local school - great to see the children doing so well.
11.20 Back on the doorstep.
11.50 Visit to a local charity doing fantastic work. Really good to meet the team and see the work they are doing.
12.10 to 12.30 On the doorstep
13.45 Attend a hustings meeting courtesy of the Southend Pensioner Campaign. A lot of familiar faces, and a good response to my speech. Some very sharp questioning...and a no show from the Tories!
16.05 Useful phonecall from a local paper.
16.10 Meet one of our local election candidates to distribute leaflets to delivers (half of them new volunteers).
18.00 Back to flat to change. Email waiting from a local paper (good news).
18.45 Meet travelling help - up from London.
19.00 to 20.45 Great help given - I could get to like this.
21.00 time for a curry!

Sunday 14 March: Out in St Laurence Road

2010-03-16T23:02:00.003Z

Paperwork in the morning, and then out after lunch to meet St Laurence residents. I had some interesting and useful conversations. But a relatively new, relatively new volunteer had the scoop of the day. On one the last doors he knocked on he found a lady who initially told him that she was going to vote for another party.

By the time he left, she had decided not only that she was going to vote Liberal Democrat, but that she was going to display a poster, and start coming to Liberal Democrat coffee mornings.

After the door knocking session we had a campaign meeting. Brief but very useful. And then a bit more paperwork to finish the day.

Saturday 13 March: Leigh, Coffee and drying paint

2010-03-16T22:54:00.002Z

I was out fairly early to walk down to Old Leigh. A good-sized team met to knock on doors. Some very enjoyable conversations - and just a good place to be in the sunshine.

After this, I called in at the Leigh Coffee morning, just around the corner from my flat. this is the way Liberal Democrats raise money: no Ashcroft for the Lib Dems.

For once I left some time in the schedule to watch rugby, and went to the Broker to see England and Scotland play an old-fashioned bore-draw. Not sure I will bother next time.

Friday 12 March: Dampness and defections

2010-03-12T23:20:00.002Z

the big event of the day was certainly the announcement that Edward McMillan-Scott was joining the Liberal Democrats. It was quite a surprise to me - and a pleasant one. EMS has a very good reputation. He is certainly someone taken seriously by anyone who has worked with him. His dispeasure at the Cameron policy of pandering to extermists (as he puts it) is well-known).

But it seemed likely that the PPE group would prove an acceptable home for him in the European Parliament. His decision to join the Liberal Democrats seems to be in large part inspired by his regard for Nick Clegg (with whom he has had contact both in Brussels and in Yorkshire). It is a big boost as Liberal democrats gather for the Spring conference (without me this time - I am staying in Southend).

And here in southend I have been knocking on doors with a large team, slightly hindered by the rain. Fortunately some thinking on our feet found us a dry spot to contiue kncking on doors when it got too wet.

We have had a good week. I feel that we got some serious work done. I'm looking forward to the weekend sessions.

Thursday 11 March: Prittlewell and Blenheim

2010-03-12T23:12:00.003Z

Lovely morning with a fairsized team covering a wide expanse of Prittlewell Ward. A particularly warm response as Mike Grimwade and myself had our papers in the (redently delivered) Yellow Advertiser saving the Post Office. and some very interesting conversations all morning.

In the afternoon, we were out again. First we looked at one of the local issues affecting people in a group of wards. Then we returned to talking to residents, but in Blenheim Ward this time. Again we covered a good area.

Wednesday 10 March: Leigh and Belfairs

2010-03-10T23:14:00.002Z

The luxury this morning was a meet up just along the road from my flat. Of course, this meant I was nearly late, but in fact the team all materialised in the right place and at the time. A lot of residents were out unfortunately, but I had some long and interesting conversations - I even went inside on one occasion (not often that I do that!)

We took a break towards the end of the morning, and went down to Leigh Marshes to take a look at the works to tidy up the parking situation down there.

In the afternoon we were out again, this time talking to residents in Belfairs. This went very well indeed - and it was good too to call in on some of our veteran supporters in the area. A lot of discussion on politics assumes that no one takes very much notice. But I found some very perceptive comments on

It was chilly though - I felt guilty if conversations on the doorstep went on for too long!

All in all a very good day - with three new volunteers for our campaign.

Tuesday 9 March: Prittlewell, Blenheim and Leigh

2010-03-10T00:00:00.003Z

Out a civilised hour to talk to residents in Prittlewell with Mike Grimwade and his team. At eleven, Mike and I took a break to meet up with Ted Lewin to talk about some of the issues that affect both wards.

We are back on the doorstep half an hour later, and find a good response again - but it is later than intended when we finish.

In the afternoon, out in Blenheim again. This is a really good session. Lots of people are in and lots of people are keen to talk. Some are keen enough to volunteer to help the campaign. This is always good.

Out in the evening to the Leigh folk club. Great night.

Monday 8 March: In Leigh

2010-03-09T23:55:00.002Z

Our Leigh team of councillors got together to discuss the various issues affecting the ward in the morning, and invited me along. Once we had finished this, I went with Peter Wexham (my predecessor as Lib dem candidate for Southend West) to visit some key people around Leigh and West Leigh.

Lunch was a green curry in the new Thai Restaurant, then out with Peter again.

In the evening we had an enthusiastic meeting of the local party executive in the Civic Centre.

Sunday 7 March: In Blenheim

2010-03-09T23:51:00.002Z

I woke up sneezing and found myself a few jobs to do indoors all morning. I ventured out in the afternoon, and crossed the London Road into Blenheim Park ward. We had an good response, with a lot of feedback on local issues. Very good, but cold as it went on.

Time for a quick drink in the Elms after that.

Saturday 6 March: Three Saturday events.

2010-03-06T22:02:00.002Z

I normally knock on doors on a Saturday morning, but today I went straight to the Prittlewell Surgery. Residents appeared in knots and eddies this morning, so as well as discussing the various issues brought up, there was time to catch up with our three Prittlewell councillors. They are certainly doing a good job!

Second event was a coffee morning in Leigh. This is the polar opposite of Lord Ashcroft's financing of the Conservatives. A group of local Liberal Democrats - at least one in her nineties meet each week in someone's house for a coffee morning. They also hold their local councillors to account, which can be interesting. This is real grassroots politics, with a great history. People assure me that the Leigh coffee morning has been going non-stop since the 1960s.

Third event was the long-deferred door knocking. It was worth the wait - we had some excellent results.

Friday 5 March: Photos and doorsteps

2010-03-06T21:48:00.003Z

Friday started with difficult phone calls, trying to shift the time for a photo shoot. But everyone showed a little flexibility, so a set of photos originally due for 10.45am was in the can by 10am.

Photos taken, we turned to the knocker. This was a morning where the "outs" were definitely winning - but we also found some good supporters, and one new member. The issue most frequently mentioned on the doorstep was the unloved Tory scheme to rip down trees at Cuckoo Corner.

I walked back for lunch, and was out again by 2.30pm, in the company of a couple of our councillors and one other volunteer. We were in an area where we expected to find considerable support - and expectations were met, and perhaps even exceeded.

The outs were in the lead again. But some very interesting issues came up on the doorstep. Afternoons like this show just how important it is to get on the doorstep - and we had the reward too of a new volunteer to help with the campaign.

The downside was that it got very cold as we reached the end of the session. It took me a while to thaw!

Friday night should be about relaxing, but I still had letters to write and a speech to draft.

Thursday 4 March: indoors and out

2010-03-04T23:54:00.003Z

This was a great day. Out in the morning to visit the local Orthodox synagogue with Graham Longley. I really enjoyed this. When I walked in I was asked if I knew Monroe Palmer (a prominent Liberal Democrat). I do slightly, and was delighted to find that he had Southend connections. There were also memories of John and Jean Sargent (famous Liberals, who played a big role in the revival of the party after the Second World War).

We were given a tour of the synagogue, and met a lot of great people. I enjoyed this greatly.

Back in my flat I found an anonymous letter waiting for me. This is unusual in itself, but more so as it was from a wellwisher. Ingriguing.

In the afternoon I was out on the doorstep, with a midweek, day-time team. We knocked on a lot of doors that weren't opened. But in between we had some good results. I think the most notable feature was ... on second thoughts I will keep that information to myself! Anyway, some grounds for optimism.

And in the evening out again for a Branch meeting. People in good spirits and full of ideas.

Now to bed...

3 March 2010: Lunch with the Mayor

2010-03-04T23:51:00.002Z

Highlight of the day was the mayor's lunch. It was good to get the chance to catch up with Brian Smith, who is having a busy but enjoyable year as Mayor of Southend.

After the meal, a chat with Graham Longley about the campaign. Then in the evening a chat with Nina Stimson. Very useful, both of them.

Apart from all that, lots of time on the computer, and a brisk walk around Chalkwell.

Tuesday 2 March: Outdoors with the sun shining.

2010-03-03T00:02:00.002Z

I'm out in the morning, attending a coffee morning at an old people's home. This is very good especially the stories of ong ago Liberal councillors.

After this a brief visit to the hospital for a quick meeting.

In the afternoon a biggish group depart to talk to residents. We get an excellent response - very good indeed. But we are in an area where I would expect us to get a very good response, so it not reasonable to read too much into it.

Early evening I get some jobs and correspondence out of the way. After this I walk down to Leigh Folk Club. There is a good crowd there to listen to Ruth Notman - with a few Liberal democrats among them. There's a surprise...

Monday 1 March: Indoors with the sun shining

2010-03-02T23:56:00.002Z

Lots of stuff to do inside, so I'm not on the doorstep even though the sun is shining. Well - I am on one doorstep, having my photo taken. Knocking on doors is the best part of being a candidate and having your photo taken one of the worst. Having your photo taken while knocking on doors is a happy compromise I suppose.

There is time too for a few meetings with our treasurer, secretary and my agent (all bilaterals). After the last of these, we walk down the street for a Thai curry.

Sunday 28 February: The day of the storm

2010-03-01T09:35:00.002Z

Terrible morning outside, rain lashing on the windows. Fortunately I have a lot of stuff to be getting on with inside - correspondence and planning.

At 1pm it is suddenly a lot better, and just after two I am out on the doorstep in Blenheim and then Prittlewell wards. I'm in streets where I would expect to find as man conservatives as Lib Dems. The Conservative households do seem pretty downbeat about things - perhaps they have seen the headlines and polls this morning. These must have caused great anguish down in Bournemouth. Conservative activists have been telling themselves for years that the next election was their's by right. Suddenly they are having to contemplate losing their fourth election in a row.

We seem to be in better spirits. Despite the terrible morning weather there is a good turn out of helpers in Prittlewell.

It isn't the warmest of days though. By the time I get to the end of my street I am ready for a coffee and a quick chat about campaign plans. Then it is back to the flat for more of those correspondence and computer jobs - and a spot of vacuum-cleaning.

Saturday 27 February: A selection of events.

2010-02-27T23:25:00.002Z

Southend West Liberal Democrats had a lot on today. In Prittlewell a team was out in numbers in the morning. Leigh and West Leigh had (as every Saturday) a coffee morning. But you can't be everywhere, so I started the day in the Blenheim Ward surgery.

It was good to catch up with Jim Clinkscales and Graham Longley, but there have been busier Councillors' surgeries than this. Had lunch with Graham, then went with him to the centre of Southend to take a few photos for his election address - and then up the Estuary to take a few more for mine.

By the time we had done this, it was time to meet the Belfairs team. The objective was to go out and listen. We covered a lot of ground, and talked to a lot of people. Really good, solid results.

I got back just in time to watch the last few minutes of the England - Ireland game. And then out to a celebration in the High Street.

So a good day - apart from the Rugby. Best is that we keep getting new volunteers to help us - by displaying posters and delivering leaflets especially, but in all sorts of way.

Saturday 20 February: Variations

2010-02-21T22:05:00.002Z

First thing in the morning (okay 9.30am) out in Leigh Ward, with a good crowd of Lib Dems. Spoke to lots of residents - really useful.

11am went to St Laurence to attend their coffee morning. Numbers are going up! Good chance to touch base with Ted and Carole.

Back in Leigh for a bagel for lunch, and then half an hour talking to some people we hadn't got to earlier on. Then over to Belfairs to join a doorstep team there. Very good response. Met a few long-standing supporters we didn't know about, and some people moving our way. The most interesting conversation was with some long-standing Tory supporters (and probably members).

Back to my flat to work on artwork and election plans, before going to spend an evening with the Royal British Legion. This was good fun indeed. Met someone who had watched me canvass a street in Prittlewell earlier in the week (he was working there). Lots of great people. Won a prize in the rafflem and got a certificate for my poppy selling efforts. Best of all, learned that Westcliff RBL beat their target of £50 000 for the 2009 appeal. Well done, Westcliff!

Friday 19 February: 3,2,1

2010-02-20T00:01:00.002Z

A varied day.

I was out early, delivering leaflets in Westborough. Then up to the High Street for a coffee with a journalist. As I waited, my wife phoned and we had a long talk about conditions in Haiti (which is where she is). She says it is really bad. Worse than it seems on the television. Very sad.

Instead of lunch I caught up with one of our new candidates to discuss content and photos for a local newsletter. And then I caught the number 21 bus to go to talk to residents in Prittlewell.

This was good fun, although there were a couple of residents with quite difficult issues we will need to try to help them with. Three people offered to display posters and two to deliver, which seemed okay.

And in the evening we called around on a number of existing deliverers on the other side of the constituency. One joined, and another said that he wanted to (but we had run out of forms). So 3,2,1 - but should have been 3,2,2.

Thursday 18 February: New volunteers warm up a chilly day

2010-02-18T23:32:00.002Z

This morning felt the coldest of week, and we started our survey of residents in the mist. We were in Prittlewell all morning and a lot of the residents weren't - or at least weren't at home. But we stuck at it and ended up talking to a reasonable number of residents.

I surveyed the adjoining streets some months ago - so most of the issues were familiar. But it was interesting to see how many people are fixing their attention on national politics just now. There certainly seems to be a group of idealistic, older voters turning from Labour to the Liberal Democrats.

We had a couple of volunteers to help in the campaign during the morning. And a few more from emails and personal contacts over the rest of the day. Looking back over the week, it is clear that we have taken a big step forward.

In the afternoon I helped with delivery in Eastwood - until the drizzle thickened and eventually drove us inside.

Then correspondence and artwork: it isn't all glamorous doorstep work!

Wednesday 17 February: Beyond a Boundary

2010-02-17T23:03:00.003Z

Great day. Out early in the chill sunshine, knocking on doors in Belfairs. Lots of pleasant conversations of the "we don't often see a candidate..." type.

Then over the border into Southend East, to visit a mosque together with Graham Longley. Then lunch courtesy of the Plough (with Graham) and Oldham's before getting together with the team to deliver newspapers to swathes of Prittlewell, Westborough, and Chalkwell.

As the newspapers ran out, I reverted to some door knocking. This produced one of the best responses I have ever known: "I've been a Labour voter all my life, but I will vote Lib Dem now. @nick_clegg's 4 point plan is SO right!" (I paraphrased this to fit Twitter.)

Then back to my flat to work on some artwork before spending most of the evening quite productively in a meeting in St Laurence. Great day.

Tuesday 16 February: RSP

2010-02-16T21:11:00.003Z

This was going to be a great day for getting on the doorstep. Except that it rained too much, and so I ended up staying in all morning and most of the afternoon. I got a lot of stuff done, but it isn't the same as being out there on the doorstep.

In the end I was only out for a couple of hours in the late afternoon/early evening, in Eastwood. We knocked on some doors, and delivered some leaflets - and rubbed our hands together to keep them warm.

Eastwood used to be a Liberal Democrat ward in the 1990s, and my theory has long been that it wouldn't take all that much effort to bring it back again. When you knock on doors you find a lot of support for the Liberal Democrats - but in recent years we probably haven't been good enough at getting our supporters out to vote. Perhaps the current Tory disarray will do this for us.

Not long after we finished, my wife phoned from Haiti, where she is working alongside the Post Natural Disaster Assessment. It was good to hear from her. I worry about her over there.

PS: RSP? It means Rain Stopped Play.

Monday 15 February: From East to West

2010-02-15T22:29:00.002Z

Campaigning began this morning at 9.30am, talking to residents in the polling districts that come into Southend West from Southend East. This is quite an odd change. Southend West has traditionally been a much stronger seat for the Liberal Democrats than its eastern neighbour. So you might expect areas coming from the East to be a handicap.

But this isn't the case at all: these polling districts form part of Prittlewell Ward, where there are three Lib Dem councillors and a great Liberal tradition - stretching back to the 1950s. So we got a warm response on a bright but chilly morning.

At 10.40am I broke off to look at some issues in Priory Park with two of our local councillors, Ric Morgan and Mike Grimwade. And by 11.30 I had moved on to a campaign meeting. This was very productive - new volunteers coming forward are easing the task!

After a sandwich lunch, I recorded an interview with Rachel Charman of Councilbust. It was good to meet Rachel at last - I have been reading her blog, and occasionally exchanging emails for ages.

Then out to Eastwood, helping deliver newspaper in the streets that run up to the western borders of the constituency. The Conservatives are in some disarray in Eastwood after the unusual resignation of one of their councillors - who is going to stand an "independent" in a distant part of the Borough. This story provoked a few wry comments from residents. It seems as if it might be doing the Tories real damage.

Back in my flat I found an email that had been forwarded to me from someone outside the area. The original came from a resident I spoke to towards the end of last year, who has subsequently offered to put a poster. One comment was particularly enjoyable: "he will make an ideal foreign affairs spokesman".

Watch out, Ed Davey!

Sunday 14 February: Blending youth and experience.

2010-02-14T20:08:00.004Z

The best part of campaigning today was probably the mix of new and experienced campaigners taking part. The worst: probably running out of leaflets before we had run out of energy.

We started at eleven am in Belfairs. There were enough of us to split into two teams. One finished off the areas where we still have gaps in the delivery network. The rest of us went talking to residents.

Sadly quite a few of these were out. But one our new volunteers, out knocking on doors for the first time, soon came across someone who volunteered to deliver newsletters for us.

And I found someone who told me that they normally voted Conservative - but would put up a poster and vote for the Liberal Democrats this time around.

So a good morning - although in the end it was past 2pm by the time I got back to my flat.

This didn't give me much time before meeting the afternoon team in Chalkwell Park.

We had several hundred newspapers to deliver - which seemed a challenge in the ward with the longest drives in the constituency. But we got through them more quickly than I had expected.

So yesterday Leigh and West Leigh, today Belfairs and Chalkwell. Tomorrow we will be in Eastwood and Prittlewell.

And that blend of experience and youth? Well today we had Peter Wexham (candidate in 2005) and Nina Stimson (candidate in 1992 and 1997) out campaigning, alongside people who were knocking on doors for the very first time. A great team!

Saturday 13th February: supporters getting in touch.

2010-02-13T22:43:00.003Z

The day started in good style: a new supporter was waiting for me in the inbox on my computer.

I didn't have too long to linger over this though. A team of us met up at 9.30 to talk to residents in Leigh.

Leigh is a good ward for the Liberal Democrats, and we got a good response. There were some pretty harsh words for the Labour Party and for Southend West's current MP though. And a number of local issues came up too.

We were finished in Leigh shortly after eleven, and moved on to a coffee morning in West Leigh.

It felt very good to walk into the coffee morning and find about twenty supporters already hard a work. You don't just sip coffee at one of these events. Many of the people who attend have decades of experience in sorting leaflets into delivery rounds, and that is exactly what they were doing. Pretty soon we had two wards sorted out.

It was also a chance to hear from the councillors on what they have been doing. As so often, Peter Wesham had some ideas on people we should contact for help. He had one particularly intriguing suggestion today. No doubt I will come back to this one!

Having the leaflets sorted gave us a task for the afternoon, of course. So we then spent most of it taking leaflets to deliverers.

There was a good mix of veterans and newcomers to see. A few were taking leaflets for the first time - and although this was what they had volunteered to do, I wanted to know if they were willing to get more involved. Several were, and it looks to me as if we are about to have a jump in the number of members.

And that was going to be that, almost. I thought that the only thing I had to do this evening was a bit to prepare artwork for some new leaflets.

I did check my group on Facebook and found that we have another four supporters (one being my Dad - thanks Dad!) And then the 'phone rang, with the message that someone who I had asked to get more involved a few weeks back had thought about and was ready to do so. So the day ends as it began - on the upbeat!

How Southend Radio are reporting the fingerprint story

2009-11-25T19:59:00.002Z

School Fingerprint Row

A row's broken out over the use of finger-printing in schools in Southend. The local Liberal Democrats say the system is an invasion of privacy - but the Borough Council argues the issue is limited and only used fairly. Prospective MP for Southend West Peter Welch says he's spoken to a mum who's currently at odds with the school attended by her daughter. She says the child has been threatened with not having her Christmas lunch - if permission is not received to finger print her. But a Council statement says they aren't aware of any single cases of pupils being denied any entitlement. The statement goes on to say the system is only used for tracking library books - or to determine whether a child is eligible for free school meals.

(I don't normally copy and paste - but Southend Radio don't keep stories up forever).

Schools Fingerprint Row - Update
The use of finger-print scanning in some of Southend's schools is continuing to be criticised by some parents. Four schools are using the system - saying it makes library and canteen use simpler. But parents are worried about the security of the personal data that's been collected.
Added by news on 26/11/2009 08:53:56

The missing bus shelter mystery

2009-11-25T18:44:00.003Z

Eighty bus shelters have disappeared around Southend. And I'm beginning to doubt the explanation given by the Council for their withdrawal.

The Council leader responsible for Transport issues had told the world that the withdrawal of the bus shelters was the responsibility of the advertising company: posting on the council’s website the following message

For the past 15 years 80 of the borough’s 260 shelters have been supplied by media company Clear Channel have been funded by advertising. But the down-turn in advertising revenue means the shelters are now being withdrawn.

I was contacted by a number of local residents about the issue and began to look into it. And the more I looked, the less sense the the offical explanation seemed to make. So I contacted Clear Channel for further information.

They had a completely different point of view:

we did not choose to withdraw from Southend. Southend decided to take bus shelter provision in-house at the end of our 15 year contract. We wanted to renew. All shelter removals are being done on the express instructions of the council.

It seems there is a spin operation going on. But I am still waiting for full and frank disclosure of what really happened.

TOO MANY SCHOOLKIDS GIVING FINGERPRINTS IN SOUTHEND SCHOOLS?

2009-11-20T20:08:00.002Z

One of the things that has been bothering me for the last week or so is the rising number of Southend schools fingerprinting their pupils.

I know that some people don't get excited about this sort of thing. But in my view it is both an invasion of privacy in its own right, and a terrible way of teaching schoolkids to take it for granted

I became concerned about the issue when a Southend mum told him about the impact of refusing permission to take fingerprints from her children. Her daughter was told she wouldn’t be allowed to eat the school Christmas lunch with the other children.

Initial research suggests that at least four Southend schools have introduced the technology. But my fear is that more are likely to be involved. The issue doesn’t seem to have given rise to any debate on the borough council - many councillors aren't aware that it is going on. Yet it is a serious invasion of privacy. I am very pleased that my Liberal Democrat colleagues are going to tackle the issue.

The civil liberties campaigner Henry Porter wrote in the Guardian the other day that ‘with the daily reports of data loss and security breaches (the latest concerns the T-Mobile phone company) the case against the needless accumulation of personal data has been made so convincingly that it is surprising that ... schools are still spending public money on systems, which they cannot guarantee are secure.’

He got it exactly right, in my view. We will follow up on this issue.

Read by Queen Elizabeth, drafted by King Canute

2009-11-18T21:17:00.002Z

For me, it was the Flood Management Bill that summed up the Queen's Speech. It conjured up an image of Gordon Brown trying to hold back the waters of history - a little dutch boy with his finger in the hole in the dyke, looking up to see the waves crashing over the top.

But some of the other bills were more bathetic. A bill on Child Poverty? A law, as Nick Clegg pointed out, that doesn't bring a penny of funding with it. It served only to remind us that Labour failed to tackle child poverty in the years of their false "boom". Now, as they leave office, they seek to impose a binding commitment on their successors to achieve where they failed.

And it was much the same story for the Fiscal Responsibility Bill. Personally I am convinced that an incoming government will need a tight, credible, and forward-looking fiscal framework. The panic cuts that the Tories are talking about, risk doing us as much damage as the mess Labour made of the economy.

But hearing this nonsense about binding rules from a dead-duck Labour government merely reminds of the way Brown and Darling failed to deliver when prudence was required - and affordable. We will need Vince Cable at the Treasury. Only Vince can restore the confidence of markets that the government is serious on spending, and the confidence of voters that politicians understand their hopes and fears.

So the last Queen's Speech of the Labour government did three things. It reminded us of all the things Labour failed to achieve in thirteen years in office with, for the most part, favourable economic conditions. It showed them scrambling around trying to turn their failings into a stick with which to hit the opposition. And behind the voice of Queen Elizabeth it allowed us to make out the anguish of King Canute, trying to turn back the tide, and failing.

Piers and open-air theatres

2009-11-16T19:32:00.004Z

I remember looking at the smoking and charred remains of the pier in 2005 and wondering whether it would ever re-open. (In fact it wasn't closed for all that long - just a couple of months.)

The latest installment in the pier story is rejection of the Council's bid to redevelop the pier - as reported in the Echo.

I'm not really surprised by this. Opinions varied on the design that was being put forward - and I was in the "not very impressed" camp (but also the "better than nothing" camp). I quite liked the open-air theatre idea: but if you want one, wouldn't it be better placed in Priory or Chalkwell Park?

The key weakness of the proposal was that it didn't involve any private-sector investment. Asking for the taxpayer to stump up the full cost of refurbishing the pier never seemed a runner.

A Labour view on the likely result in Southend West

2009-11-06T23:34:00.003Z

Julian Ware-Lane, Labour's candidate in Castle Point (next door) and a Southend West resident, has been staring at the tea leaves.

You would expect a Labour candidate to talk up his party's chances. And Julian does. Leaving that aside, he may just be on to something.

I spent most of the daylight hours on the doorstep today. I had a very warm reception - and we picked up a lot of anger at the Cameron U-turn on Lisbon.

But there was no warmth for Labour. The revival of Blair as a potential President of the Council of ministers seems to upset a lot of people.

Cameron of course has been modelling himself on Blair as long as he has been leader. But Blair would never have allowed New Labour to have a bad a week as this has been for the Conservatives. The return of Kirkbride is just the latest in a succession of blunders.

I am not about to make an incautious predictions, but the Tories are miles away from where they would like to be.

Castle Point is an interesting seat. I should write something about Julian's prospects at some point.

HSBC cutting jobs in Southend?

2009-11-03T18:24:00.003Z

The media is full of the HSBC job cuts. As yet HSBC don't seem to be giving many details, but it seems clear that Southend is going to be badly affected. The Echo website talks of 750 jobs going.

That is terrible news. HSBC now seem to be eyeing the exit from the UK. They announced that they were going to move their senior staff to Hong Kong a few weeks ago. Now hardworking staff on modest salaries are going to be left on the scrapheap.

This is a real blow to the town

You can't get your computer to connect to the Office intranet. What do you do?

2009-10-27T19:00:00.004Z

Call the IT helpdesk? Or ask a Parliamentary Question?

Well it seems that Southend West's MP would choose the PQ route. We can only guess what office drama led to this question:

To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what steps the House of Commons Commission (a) has taken and (b) plans to take to make the Parliamentary House of Commons intranet compatible with computers running Windows Vista 64-bit edition; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Harvey MP (for it is he) resisted the temptation to tell Mr Amess to try switiching it off and back on again, and instead said

No alterations need to be made to the Parliament intranet specifically for Windows desktop Vista 64 bit edition. The intranet is delivered through internet browsing technology which is independent of the system on which the browser runs.

All this suggests that 26 years as a backbench MP is just too long. In the real world, you call the helpdesk when you can't get connected to the internet, you don't write a Parliamentary Question. It would certainly have saved the taxpayer some money.

A few weeks ago a bizarre airborne incident led me to compare Amess to Basil Fawlty.

Things have moved on since then.

He now seems to be in David Brent territory.

Free the Essex One!

2009-10-22T17:17:00.002+01:00

I'm supporting the campaign to free Darcy the Rescue Dog from quarantine.

Darcy went out to Indonesia - helping earthquake victims with the Essex Fire Service.

But our antiquated laws mean she’s now in six months quarantine, despite having a pet passport, although the Swiss rescue dogs who also helped out in the disaster zone have gone back to work.

My view is that she doesn't just deserve her freedom – she deserves a medal!

The government should change the law, so that rescue dogs – who have all been vaccinated – don’t face six months in quarantine after helping out in distant lands.

Legg didn't go far enough

2009-10-21T20:30:00.002+01:00

Legg is in the news today for double-counting Ken Clarke's cleaning bills. Unfortunate to make the sort of mistake you are investigating in others, but in no sense the key weakness in the exercise. Because overall the problem seems to be that Legg didn't go far enough.

So far some of the worst offenders seem to be getting away with it. Legg has not got serious with people who have flipped houses, for example. And there are far too many cases of expenses that Legg cannot check because the documentation was never submitted. Indeed, his approach seems to mean that MPs who kept individual claims to the level at which no invoice was needed are not going to be scrutinised.

Nick Clegg was surely right to say that Legg must go on and deal with the “spivvy flippers”. And before the General Election comes we must have complete transparency on MPs’ expenses. We must know exactly what people have been paid and what for.

MPs who seek secrecy should expect short shrift from the electorate. And those MPs who opposed reform of the expense system should step down. They are not wanted in our Parliament.

In the press: ‘David Amess is having a Basil Fawlty moment'

2009-10-06T17:45:00.004+01:00

The Echo has a report on the odd story about our MP that was in the Mail on Sunday. If you missed it, this tells a rollicking tale of Amess causing a security alert on boarding a flight to Washington, and a hygiene alert on leaving it.

The Mail put it like this:

A senior MP on an official parliamentary trip was almost barred from a flight to the United States after telling check-in staff that Osama Bin Laden had packed his bags.

Tory David Amess was allowed to travel on the Virgin Atlantic plane from Heathrow to Washington only after security officials confronted him and the captain had been asked whether he would let the MP on board.

The flight also ended in chaotic scenes when Mr Amess was humiliatingly taken off the plane in a wheelchair after being violently sick.

He then vomited in front of US immigration staff at Washington Dulles airport, was unable to board a connecting flight with fellow MPs to Nashville, Tennessee, and had to be tracked down by the US Secret Service because his colleagues did not know where he was.

There is a history of this sort of thing happening to David Amess. The Echo lists a few:

it was the latest in a series of gaffes that included Mr Amess denouncing a non-existent drug after being duped on spoof TV comedy Brasseye and him fleeing to the safety of a hair salon after being questioned about his expenses by an Echo reporter.

Then they use a quote from me:

“It seems David Amess has had another of his Basil Fawlty moments. First it was condemning a drug that didn’t exist, most recently it was hiding from the press in a ladies’ hairdressers. Now we have Southend West’s MP telling counter staff Bin Laden had packed his suitcase, throwing up at immigration control and then writing a letter of complaint about it.

“Most people would have been hugely embarrassed, and written to apologise rather than complain.”

David Amess came to Southend West (from Basildon) because he believed it was a safe Tory seat. He nearly lost it first time around. - to Nina Stimson of the Liberal Democrats. A lot of us are working hard to seal the deal next time around.

You can show your support here.

Doorbell day

2009-10-02T20:37:00.003+01:00

At fairly short notice, I found I had today free to knock on doors. An email or two assembled a number of people to go out with me, and so I have spent most of the day talking to residents. We were out from 9.30 until 11.30 in the morning and from 3 to about 6.30 in the afternoon (and I met up with a couple of our Leigh councillors to look at and photograph a troublesome crossing, just to fill out the day).

If you don't enjoy meeting and talking to people, you shouldn't be in politics. But some days are certainly better than others. This was towards the top end of the scale. One of the bonuses was just that so many people were in - and that it was such a glorious sunny day.

And there was the bonus of several extremely positive conversations.

The best of these was at a house on a busy corner.

The objective of the exercise today was simply to get residents' views. But no politico sees a house like that without thinking what a good poster site it would be.

I rang the bell and the door opened. As soon as I said who I was the chap shook my hand, told me he was going to vote for me and added "and I'll have one of those poster boards in the garden, too!"

I didn't even need to ask...

The rest of the team had similar results - Jove send me more such afternoons as this!

Polling update: Liberal Democrats move into second place according to MORI

2009-09-28T22:22:00.003+01:00

I was just writing about polls - and along came another.

The BBC report that

The Ipsos Mori survey puts the Tories on 36%, Labour on 24% and the Liberal Democrats on 25%.

That compares with last month's results which had the Tories 43%, Labour 26% and the Liberal Democrats 17%.

It is the first time Labour have been in third place since February 1982, when they were on 33% compared to 34% for the Liberal-SDP Alliance.

The last sentence is all rubbish, by the way. ICM put Labour third on one poll earlier this year (I am trying to see how you can come third with 33% too - seems to be equal at worst, unless they published to one decimal place in those days).

Interesting, in any case. A massive fall for the Tories, and a massive rise for the Liberal Democrats. That is the sort of result you get with MORI. It is bad news for Brown, but also backs up the Independent's argument that the Tory vote is "flimsy".

Campaigning post-conference

2009-09-28T21:49:00.001+01:00

Enough of polls. Lets get back to basics. The original idea of this blog was to record what I did on the campaign trail. Here is what happened after Conference.

Wednesday evening I got back too late to do anything except open the post. There was quite a lot of this. One piece written in green ink, some very interesting points about things happening around town (parking proposals, the pier, etc) and several offers to deliver leaflets and/or display posters. Always good to get these!

On Thursday morning I went to visit a local school and children's centre. It was great to see the facilities there in the company of the school's inspirational leader.

Blenheim School was in trouble when Marianne Turner was appointed. It has now turned around to the extent that you sometimes see house adverts that say "in Blenheim catchment area". I really enjoyed this part of the day.

I had a couple of hours free later in the day to spend recruiting members and deliverers in Chalkwell ward. Great weather, good reception - and lots and lots of chatting. It was probably worth it for the talk alone!

On Friday our riso finished a print run for Belfairs ward, and a couple of us spent a couple of hours delivering in the afternoon. Another great day. I took a couple of hours break and was out again at around five, distributing leaflets to some of our new volunteer deliverers. Everyone seemed pleased to see us - and I collected a new membership subscription as well.

One member told us that he was past now too old to deliver (fair enough, he looks in great shape but is around eighty) and we found a volunteer for half his round in a matter of minutes. I enjoyed this. A couple of us delivered the other half of the round. Hopefully we will have a few more volunteers before the next newsletter goes out.

I then spent half an hour with our local party chairman, before going out for a meal with one of my predecessors, Nina Stimson. Nina is a legend, a great source of advice, and the candidate who came closest to beating the Tories here, in 1997.

Saturday was more hectic. I had expected to spend the first hour or so in St Laurence, talking to residents, but at a late stage we decided to split up, and continue in Belfairs. By mid morning I was in Blenheim Ward again, joining councillors at a surgery. At midday, I called in on the branch coffee morning in Leigh where people - almost all of them members - were discussing conference.

Next I joined key campaigners for lunch at the Bell to discuss plans for the future.

That was meant to be it, but I went to the football in the afternoon, and ran into a few people. A conversation about DLA was more memorable than the football, to be honest. Southend were pretty poor until they went a goal down. They then created a few chances, but didn't take them.

How big a boost? Polls post-conference

2009-09-28T19:05:00.001+01:00

It is easy to be snobbish about polls, but politicos both love them - and take them with a pinch of salt.

Polls aren't very good at telling us the absolute level of support for a party. At least, they can't all be very good at it, because they tend to show different levels of support with some regularity. ICM, for example, is often the poll showing the highest level of support for the Liberal Democrats (but has fairly wild mood swings every now and again). Since February, the lowest Liberal Democrat share of the vote on ICM has been 18%, the highest 25%. YouGov (which polls most often) has reported results in a lower band in the period February to September, from 14% to 20%. Populus and ComRes fall between these two, while BPIX and MORI seem much more variable. As a result, a Liberal Democrat politican is likely to be happier about 19 per cent on a YouGov poll than about 20% on ICM.

If polls only give you a few hints as to absolute levels of support for any party, they do tell us more about trends. Even here, you need to be careful. The margin of error for any polling company is about as big as the change reflected in the shares of vote for most parties, most of the time. All these stories about Conservatives being down 2%, Labour up 1% might just represent the random movement of sampling error: opinion out there, may be completely unchanged (or even have moved in the opposite direction).

But when all the polls say the same thing, it is hard to dismiss them.

YouGov have (a couple of weeks too late) just started publishing a daily tracking poll. I say it is too late from a purely partisan perspective. If we had had this information while the Liberal Democrat conference had been taking place it would have been reported in quite a different way (as we will see). But it is a good moment to look at all the polls post-conference: they show quite a consistent picture.

26 September : YouGov CON 39% (-2%); LAB 26%(-1%): LIB DEM 20% (+3%)
26 September : ICM CON 40% (-35); LAB 26% (-); LIB DEM 23%(+4%)
27 September : BPIX CON 40%; LAB 25%; LIB DEM 22%(in principle, up 5%, but there is a question mark over the figures reported for August)
28 September: ComRes CON 38% (-2%); LAB 23% (-1%); LIB DEM 23% (+2%).

Take the four together and you are forced to conclude that the Liberal Democrats got a pretty significant boost out of the their conference. You might also conclude that the shares of the vote just now look pretty consistent.

The YouGov Daily tracker reinforces this strongly. It shows the Liberal Democrat share of the vote increasing from 17% on 21 September to 23% on 24 September.

The bad news for Liberal Democrats is that this comes out so late. Other parties are also likely to see a boost from their conferences - and this will be reflected in the way these are reported (indeed this is already happening for Labour).

The good news is that the Liberal Democrat share of the vote has been pushing the envelope for all the polling companies (which is my personal test of significance).

And of course it goes to show that the more voters see of Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, the more they like them.

Speaking of leaders, a couple of other factors emerge from the polls. ComRes asked about alternative Labour leaders. The Independent concluded that these figures showed that a different leader could help Labour but - I think most importantly - that Tory support is "flimsy". Tory support seems to be quite significantly about not having Gordon Brown as leader. The ComRes figures suggest that with Jack Straw as leader the Tory share of the vote would be 31% - just 3% ahead of Labour, and 10% ahead of the Liberal Democrats. That would make me nervous, if I were a Conservative (though I don't argue that this would actually happen if Brown went and Straw took over).

YouGov asked some questions about the leaders that deserve attention. A key negative for Cameron was that 50% of the population believe he would rule in the interests of the well-off.

People often ask me who will win the next General Election. My answer is usually that the one thing I am sure of is that Labour won't. The polls don't answer the question either, but make me think that there is a lot of upside potential for the Liberal Democrats (as long as we can make sure we get a hearing), and that there is quite significant downside potential for the Conservatives). But I thought that anyway!

Polly Toynbee: Impossible things over the breakfast table.

2009-09-19T09:01:00.003+01:00

There seemed quite a buzz around Bournemouth bars last evening. The Bedford crowd were out tapping everyone they could find to help the excellent Dave Hodgson become Bedford's next mayor.

A lot of people from all around the country were very upbeat about their local chances. And the polls saying tory voters prefer Cable to Osborne back up what we knew already.

It is quite an amazing situation though.

Just a few months before an election the Tories are widely expected to win, their Shadow Chancellor is just a shadow of ours.

I often kjip Polly toynbee columns because I feel I have read them already. She only has a few things to say, and she has said them many times already. But I did read throughher column today.

Quite a lot of her argument is based on a premise I wouldn't accept: the idea that the electorate is full of people who genuinely identify themselves as Labour or Conservative. Obviously there are such people, but my experience is that people are quite fluid in terms of identification.

But her conclusion will have some appeal to a lot of people. Polly argues that Clegg should do a u-turn and proclaim "an economic policy that didn't parrot the dangerous current group-think that declares deb most be paid down fast and furiously by whatever next government".

Ignoring the inflated language, I hope Clegg will also ignore the advice. Saying things people want to hear has a superficial attraction. But voters wouldn't believe it (not even "Labour" voters). And commentators would rightly dismiss it.

Follow Polly's advice and every interview, every article between now and the election would mention that your spending palns didn't add up.

A few links: Global Warming, the Wire, Nick Clegg, James Graham

2009-08-30T22:26:00.000+01:00

Things have been quiet here of late - not because I haven't been campaigning - but quite the opposite. (I did have a wifi free week in the Lake District though).

There have been a few interesting articles around recently.

The FT ran a piece by Hans-Werner Sinn on the energy policy we really need. You probably won't agree with all of it - I don't think I am convinced that western goverments have had the impact on the expectation of oil producers that he claims - but definitely worth the read. His conclusion is

To be effective, environmental policy has two options: either it uses the tax system to make it unattractive for resource owners to convert their fossil fuel wealth into financial investments, or it creates a seamless consumer cartel through the establishment of a global emissions trading system. The emissions trading system would effectively put a cap on worldwide fossil fuel consumption, thereby achieving the desired slowdown in extraction rates. Furthermore, part of the proceeds would be diverted from resource owners’ pockets to the national treasuries of the countries selling emissions certificates.

Anything else is mere bragging.

Chris Grayling recently said that Britain was becoming like "The Wire". This is pretty deperately wide of the mark, and Bagehot's notebook on the Economist website did a good job of showing why:

The problem isn't only that the ultra-violence it depicts is so much worse than anything that happens in British cities, where, thankfully, gun crime is still comparatively rare (for the uninitiated, "The Wire" is set in Baltimore). The trouble is also that many of the show's messages directly contradict Tory policy.

One of the main preoccupations of "The Wire", perhaps the main one, is the way organisations work, and how very different types—unions, newspapers, criminal gangs, city councils—tend to work in eerily similar ways. In each, people try to evade responsibility and pin it on others; talent is thwarted; the selfless are sacrificed; the cynical and corrupt rise. Two of these depictions in particular are not altogether helpful to Mr Grayling.

First, the police department. "The Wire" suggests that the subordination of policing to municipal politicians results in the warping of performance indicators and misallocation of resources. Yet the Tories want to introduce a version of local police accountability in Britain, too. Second, the city mayor's office. In "The Wire" this is one of the places where noble motives go to die. The mayors constantly cut squalid deals with interest groups, massage statistics and hush-up scandals. Yet the Tories want many of Britain's cities to have their own elected mayors.

David Simon's sympathetic characters (McNulty, Freamon, Omar) are decidedly not lovers of their little platoons - not Tories by any stretch of the imagination.

The print edition of the Economist also carried a piece criticising the release of Megrahi. I'm in the "against" camp myself, and quite puzzled that anyone other than the hapless justice minister can decide to be in the "pro" camp. It seems to be a case where you can either oppose, say you need more information, or adopt a pretty radical realpolitik approach (ie claiming we had to do it to get Libya's oil/protect British business).

Here is an extract:"suspicions are swirling that Mr Megrahi’s release was part of a dark bargain with Muammar Qaddafi, Libya’s leader. It was ongoing payment for Libya’s conversion from terror-sponsoring rogue state to ally in the war against terrorism, say some. A prisoner-transfer agreement between the two countries ratified earlier this year, which might have provided Mr Megrahi an alternative route home, suggests that London had been willing for some time to oblige the Libyans in the matter."

Nick Clegg announced his return from a summer break with an article for the Telegraph warning that the expenses scandal was in danger of being squeezed out of the headlines by Tories and Labour alike. I thought this was well worth saying, as knocking on doors in Southend West shows it still to be a the top of voters concerns. I also thought it well timed - as he was speaking in St Albans that evening.

But James Graham saw Clegg's return as the opportunity to put the boot in: "the disappearance of the Lib Dem party leader each August has become an established part of the Lib Dem calendar". He might be right - but I seem to remember that Clegg took a very short break last year. (Haven't checked this, though...).

Still Clegg is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't: Graham worries that "Clegg has a tendency to talk about spending cuts almost at the expense of everything else".

I'm not at all sure this is true - but I'm quite sure it is a good thing that we are prepared to be realistic about public finances. Governments of whatever colour are going to face the challenge either reducing unemployment, benefits, or other expenditure.

It would be fantastic to achieve everything we want on the basis of cutting boosting employment. But too fantastic for voters (and indeed candidates). To be plausible, both our platform and our leaders need to acknowledge that there is some pain to come.

Osborne banks plan slated in the FT

2009-07-20T11:18:00.002+01:00

Or perhaps that should read "on" the FT, as we are talking about the Alphaville blog.

Paul Murphy can't hide his contempt. Heading up the piece "George Osborne, claptrapper" he sets out the Osborne problem in a few paragraphs

"There was one thing missing from George Osborne’s cosy Sunday morning chat with Andrew Marr on the BBC, and his subsequent View from Europe interview with George Parker, the FT’s political editor: evidence that this man quite has what it takes to be Britain’s next Chancellor of the Exchequer.

"In fact, quite the opposite. Osborne’s headline-grabbing promise to scrap the FSA betrayed a breathtaking naivety. Does he really think we can just dismantle the infrastructure of Britain’s financial regulator — 10 years in the building — and then simply reconstruct it in some supposedly firm old hands in Threadneedle Street, and, hey presto, everything will be fixed?

"This was clap-trap policy formation at its most dangerous."

After a little compare and contrast which will put a smile on Vince's face, Murphy explains why the Tory plan doesn't meet the demands of the age:

"This superficial idea that the Bank of England would somehow have handled things better — and will do so in future, given the chance — just isn’t supported by any evidence, historical or present.

"It was the shocking failure of devolved old-boy regulation under the Bank, the Securities & Investments Board, and the various sub-regulators like the Securities & Futures Association, that required the establishment of a powerful central regulator like the FSA in the first place. In truth, oversight of the City has been in more or less constant crisis since the Thatcher government reforms in the mid-1980s.

"The last thing that is needed now is yet another extended period of structural upheaval, where bureaucrats spend their time taking lumps out of each other rather than tackling the underlying problems."

But read the whole thing - it is worth it!

Centre Forum in the FT

2009-07-16T21:26:00.004+01:00

Liberal Democrats are used to seeing Vince Cable praised for his insight into economics. But this is sometimes a bit double-edged: I meet more than a few voters who like Vince but are completely sold on the rest of us yet.

But our reputation for economic competence is certainly enhanced bu the FT this Friday. Martin Wolf takes as his text the latest CentreForum publication: A Balancing Act, And Wolf likes what he finds there, descriing it as "an excellent new paper".

Wolf struggles to stay positive for long, and turns from the impressive CentreForum document to a less impressive document from an organisation known as "the Treasury".

But Wolf returns to the Centre Forum to preface his peroration. He is a commentator of the "painful truth" variety, but here it is in full:

In his paper, Mr Wilkes focuses on raising taxes on property and the value added tax. The arguments for imposing heavy taxes on site values are very strong. We have just seen, in all too glorious colour, the dire results of turning a nation’s population into land speculators. If necessary, let the cash-poor but land-rich borrow their tax payments from the government, and demand repayment on death. VAT revenues must also be raised, which can be done by eliminating exemptions.
Equally important, however, will be a plan for curbing spending that does minimal damage to the country’s future. Public sector wages and pensions will have to be curbed. The former can be achieved by curbing the aggregate wage bill and letting managers decide the details. This should also drive higher public sector productivity. Beyond that, governments must protect true investment. But neither health nor education can be sacrosanct. What matters is not the overall value of such specific areas of spending, but their benefits at the margin. The UK will never have a better chance than now to rethink public sector priorities and long-term funding.
It is painful to be forced to parcel out the consequences of unforeseen losses. But these losses look permanent and so cannot be avoided. Fortunately, such crises are not all bad. They are opportunities for desirable change. In the case of the UK, change is inescapable. The party that deserves to govern is the one that recognises the pain and embraces the opportunities.

Deserving to govern and getting to govern are quite different things sadly. I knock on a lot of doors and find more of an appetite for taking hard decisions than is usually the case. But is there enough?

Still, we look in better shape to win the argument about what has gone wrong under this government, and what needs to be done to put things right than we have for years. Well done Vince, and well done CentreForum!

Liberal Democrats back in the twenties in latest poll

2009-07-13T20:17:00.002+01:00

There is an ICM poll in the Guardian tomorrow.

And it will show the Liberal Democrats on 20% - up from 18% last time.

Labour are on 27%, and the Tories on 41% (also up 2%).

So the key change is a decline in the "others" score.

There is more here.

On the upbeat

2009-07-11T11:05:00.005+01:00

Andrew Grice in the Independent has a pretty upbeat take on recent polls:

something is going on after the MPs' expenses scandal and it may be good news for Mr Clegg. The latest monthly "poll of polls" for The Independent shows that, while both Labour and the Tories have been damaged by the affair, the Liberal Democrats have not. Since April, the Tories' average poll rating has dropped from 43 to 37 per cent, while Labour's has fallen from 28 to 24 per cent. But the Liberal Democrats' has remained solid at 19 per cent.
"The Liberal Democrats have not been hurt by recent events," said John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, who compiled the figures. Their current ratings are better than at any time in the last two years. The other, smaller parties are still polling strongly at 20 per cent. If that continues and Liberal Democrat support remains firm, Professor Curtice said, "the next election may begin to look less like a straight choice between Conservative and Labour than either David Cameron or Gordon Brown would like".

There is a lot in this. Cameron believes he is "Blair's heir", but the Tories really are miles away from where New Labour was in the 1990s. I was struck by one response on the doorstep towards the end of the Euro-election campaign. A resident told me that she was going to vote Conservative because she thought Cameron deserved a chance.

What was striking was not that she said it, but that she was the first person to say so, after I had knocked on a couple of thousand doors. Anyone who remembers canvassing in the 1990s will remember hearing this sort of statement about Blair every few doors.

So there is not the full-blooded support for Tories or Labour out there that there used to be, and there is a lot of goodwill towards us out there. But can we turn this into support at the ballot box?

Well I am optimistic by nature, and a little more so now than I was a few months ago. There is something almost chronic in Cameron's failure to seal the deal with the British people. Clegg is increasingly impressive on the television, and the General Election campaign will surely be good for us.

Can we pull something out of the hat before then? On Afghanistan, I think Clegg has taken a chance that is likely to pay off. And fortunately we are not mired in a wire-tapping story!

Norwich's late spring.

2009-06-28T13:33:00.003+01:00

I just read a Tweet from Chris White, who is out delivering in Norwich North, and felt guilty at not being there myself. But Southend West will be sending a carload of volunteers during the week and I will be up there soon.

April Pond will be a great candidate, I am sure. I spend some time surveying with April last year (leading up to the Euros) and was very impressed. She is very straightforward and direct, has a great sense of humour, and is a real person. She has had a life outside politics - (sadly) less often the case these days.

She is passionate about health too - which will make for interesting conversations when she catches the train to Westminster with Norman Lamb!

The Speaker

2009-06-26T20:54:00.002+01:00

Jonathan Calder raised the worrying thought that the new Speaker might be younger than I am. A quick google shows this is so - by about a year.

I knew we were more or less contemporaries, because I met him back in his Federation of Conservative Students days. He came to Exeter to speak against a motion of no confidence in the government at the Debating Society. I seconded the motion of no confidence.

Rather surprisingly - given that the Debating Soc was a rather Conservative part of a rather Sloane-y University, the "no confidence" side won the day. I thought this was as much down to Bercow as anyone else. He really seemed quite a nasty rightwinger in those days (or at least on that particular day) and alienated most of the floating vote.

It is very odd to think that Labour and Liberal Democrat votes helped see him to the Speakership all these years later.

Find the mystery website!

2009-06-23T16:22:00.002+01:00

The Echo is running this story.

SOUTHEND West Conser-vative MP David Amess claimed more than £1,500 on expenses for website design and hosting.

However, the only website the Echo has been able to find dedicated to Mr Amess contained just one picture and no information about him, besides the statement he was the MP for Southend West.

So let's open this up. Let me know if you have found a David Amess website that might have cost the taxpayer £1500.

Liberal Democrat candidate urges David Amess to stand down from Parliament now

2009-06-03T10:26:00.000+01:00

Peter Welch, Liberal Democrat prospective candidate for Southend West has written to David Amess MP, urging him to resign his seat in Parliament.

Peter Welch made the following comment:

“We are in a time of unprecedented crisis. The Labour government is falling apart in office – and the Conservative Party seems to be about to fall apart in opposition. Yesterday saw the news that Jacqui Smith will quit as Home Secretary, following her overclaims for expenses. It also saw the Conservative Deputy Leader fail to explain the tax status of one of their biggest and most influential donors on Newsnight.

“Later this week will probably see the Chancellor of the Exchequor forced out because of his excessive claims for expenses. At a time like this, the people of Southend West need an MP who is open and transparent, and who speaks up for reform.

“But David Amess is refusing to explain his expenses claims – he is running away to hide in hairdressers rather than talk to the press. He voted against reform of the system of expenses last year. So he is no position to hold the government to account, nor to clean up the system.

“Enough is enough. If he can’t explain his claims, if he has had the the chance to reform the system and voted to keep the old cosy system and the “John Lewis list” then he should step down and let the residents of Southend West choose someone else to represent them in Parliament.”

From the Echo: MP avoids questions over expenses by running into hairdressers

2009-05-29T15:50:00.002+01:00

MP DAVID Amess ran from the Echo to avoid questions after his expenses showed he claimed the maximum of £400 for food every month for the past four years.
The Tory MP sought refuge in a hairdressers’ as he tried to duck the issue.
He eventually made his escape when a car arrived at the salon in Westcliff and drove him away, with Mr Amess hiding his face behind a leaflet.
The Southend West MP’s extraordinary actions came after it emerged he claimed the maximum £19,000 on expenses for food over the past four years.

Weird scenes in Southend West. The words "making a drama out of a crisis" seem appropriate.

More here.

The serious point is that even MPs who haven't made much of a splash in the Telegraph are facing scrutiny locally - and sometimes running away from it!

Secrecy is still the problem

2009-05-27T15:48:00.004+01:00

It would be easy to think that light is being shed on MPs' expenses. But secrecy is still the big problem.

I have been out talking to residents almost every day for the last month. They are seething about the MPs’ claims for expenses. They need to know exactly what is being claimed for – not just for second homes, but also staff and office expenses. The sooner the detailed claims are available on the internet, the better.

If I am elected I pledge
 Not to employ any member of my family at public expense
 Only to claim what is necessary for me to represent the area, even if a higher sum is allowed under the rules
 To publish all my expense claims on my website.”

I have worked auditing public spending in the UK, in South America and in Europe. I should probably be less shocked than some by what we now know. But many of these cases take my breath away. David Cameron’s suggestion that paying the money back would be enough punishment shows he is out-of-touch with public opinion. Where voters are not satisfied with an MP, they should have the right to call a by-election.”

It is time for a real change!

More on the Campbell Bannerman/Campbell-Bannerman mystery

2009-05-23T20:00:00.006+01:00

I received today the following email message from a relative of the great Liberal Prime Minister, replying to my post about the leading UKIP man's mysterious relationship with the great radical. After giving some background, the message concludes

I think it is perfectly reasonable to believe Sir Henry's (Bannerman) mother is a great great (etc) Aunt of David, but that does not make him a nephew of Sir H.

I think that is right. Perhaps the Telegraph should begin to investigate.

Sunday: Watford, Welwyn and back to Southend

2009-05-17T22:19:00.003+01:00

I woke up in Hithcin, and watched the Andrew Marr show before hitting the highway. Nick Clegg did well to be forthright on the subject of the Speaker. It put me in good heart for the day.

It was tipping it down as I left Hitchin, but as soon as it stopped (about eleven) I was out on the doorstep in Watford, supporting Susan Gasczcak's campaign to win Watford West. This was good fun - although we probably didn't get as much done as Susan would have wanted. A feature of canvassing at present seems to be that a lot of longish conversations are required: if the dominant mood is meant to be of disenchantment, it is clearly an active, interested sort of disenchantment.

And anyway, voters like Susan, and don't see her as just another politician.

I couldn't stay all day though. At 2pm I was due at a garden party in Welwyn Garden City. This was well-attended, despite the weather. We spent at least as much time inside as out, which was a shame, but the organisers raised a substantial sum for local party funds.

Once the raffle had been drawn a group of us hit the streets to talk to residents. This was a particularly interesting experience for me because we were out in an area where I had spoken to residents last year.

A year later the response seemed notably warmer. I wondered whether this was partly explained by the coverage for Clegg's comments on the speaker. It certainly did not seem to have done us any harm

Below, part of the WGC doorstep team: Welch, Nigel Quinton (Hitchin and Harpendon candidate and chair of the local party in Welwyn Hatfield), Tony Scottowe (district councillor for Handside ward) and Malcolm Cowan (district and county councillor and candidate this time around).

Back in Southend I found several letters from supporters waiting on the doormat. So the day ended as it began: well.

Out and about in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire

2009-05-16T19:31:00.004+01:00

This morning I was in Bedford, canvassing with Henry Vann, our young and impressive candidate for Bedford. I like visiting Bedford for several reasons. One of these is that Dave Hodgson and Christine McHugh and the rest of the team have everything briliantly organised. Another is that you usually find yourself speaking a little Italian on the doorstep. Today was no exception.

In the afternoon I joined the team in the picture for a canvassing session in St Albans. This went well - and I was particularly pleased to get a few more posters up - the first of these was at the house of resident who mentioned the great job Sandy Walkington was doing as parliamentary candidate.

The Campbell Bannerman mystery.

2009-05-16T19:08:00.002+01:00

I did a hustings event at Brickendon, near Hertford yesterday evening. It deserves a post of its own, but this just covers the Campbell Bannerman case.

David Campbell Bannerman is the lead UKIP candidate for the region. He is usually described as a relative of the great Liberal Prime minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. This has always confused me as Sir Henry was childless, and he and his wife were (I think) the only Campbell-Bannermans.

Sir Henry was born Henry Campbell. He added the Bannerman to his name when left the estate of his maternal uncle (who was a Bannerman). His brothers remained Campbells all their lives.

So in principle, one would have expected the Campbell-Bannermans to have died out in 1908(unless the surname Bannerman was attached to the estate, which went to a nephew).

When I arrived at the event David Campbell Bannerman was already in the bar, so I asked him.

He was quite straightforward about this. He told me that he was related to C-B's mother (ie that he is a Bannerman). The Campbell is not a surname at all, but a middle name.

So normal usage would be to refer to him simpy as David Bannerman.

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was one of the great cosmopolitans of his era. He delighted in reading French novels, and spent a month of so each year in Marienbad (for the sake of his health and more particularly that of his diabetic wife). I was rather relieved to find that his connection with the UKIP candidate is, in fact, remarkably distant.

Our renewable future

2009-05-15T17:14:00.004+01:00

I didn't need convincing that Britain's energy future must be renewable, but if I had, this morning would have convinced me.

Together with Ridchard Grayson, PPC for Hemel Hempsted, I visited RES.

RES are leader in wind energy, and Richard and I were given a fantastic insight into the issues involved in increasing the UK's installed capacity by CEO Dr Ian Mays.

The HQ itself is zero-emissions buidling, part financed through an EU grant. It showcases many carbon-freindly technologies, such as wind-power, use of natural light, use of fuel crops, pv, and a 75m borehole to provide cooling in summer.

The building itself used to be the Ovaltine poultry house.

Backroom boys

2009-05-13T20:06:00.002+01:00

This morning - while the world talked about politicians who are just in it for the money - I spent with a room full of volunteers doing those unseen, unglamorous jobs that keep the political system going. Ten of us got together in Leigh to sort leaflets, and stuff envelopes - similar groups were gathering in other rooms around the constituency.

Far from being paid for it, the people around the table had made the donations which made it possible to pay for literature.

There will be more of the same tomorrow.

Elsewhere a group were knocking on doors, talking to voters. To be honest, I would have liked to be with them - even if the paper-stuffing exercise provides an opportunity for long chats with party members you don't see so often.

But I did get out on the doorstep for much of the afternoon and early evening. Although there was a fair amount of the (understandable) "you're all the same" argument a number of people said that the Telegraph didn't seem to have found much on the Lib Dems. It isn't an argument I would have dared to make myself - if only because we don't know what will come out tomorrow. But comforting nonetheless.

And this will probably go down in history as the day where more people used the "moat" than at any time since the Middle Ages.

No further comment required.

2009-05-13T20:01:00.002+01:00

Above Ann Widdecombe makes a plea to the world not to make changes to the allowances system that would bock politics to people of "modest means". She signs off with special reference to Sir Michael Spicer.

Below, the Telegraph sets out his "modest means".

Sir Michael is the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs, which is one of the most influential bodies within the Conservative Party. He also sits on the executive board of the party.
Sir Michael claimed council tax for both his sizeable manor house and the cottage next door, although the properties were separated by a courtyard. In total, the taxpayer picked up a bill of almost £4,000 for council tax on the two homes.
Over the past five years, the MP has claimed a total of £106,141 on the manor house in his West Worcestershire constituency, although there is no mortgage on the property.
Sir Michael, who was knighted in 1996, claimed about £300 a month for a cleaner who worked about 36 hours a month and paid a gardener £8 an hour for up to 55 hours a month.
One bill for £609 included four and a half hours spent cutting the hedge around the helipad and vegetable garden. Sir Michael said the helipad was a “family joke” although this was not reflected in the receipt submitted by his gardener.
Sir Michael submitted bills referring to both the manor house and the neighbouring cottage. In 2004-05, he claimed £1,497 for the next-door house, which was a Band F property. The main house was Band H – the highest rating – which was a further £2,303.
One bill for window cleaning charged £49 for the “main house” and £19 for the “other cottage”.
Another bill for £193 referred to work on a decayed door frame on an outhouse and replacing a “window fastener in cottage”.
Sir Michael said he regarded the cottage — which was a converted stable block — as part of the family home and that he had asked the local council for many years to stop listing it as a separate property. He said his children had been living in the cottage when he claimed for the council tax.

Cheered by Polls

2009-05-12T00:57:00.002+01:00

Funnily enough we were just talking about polls and leaders at our campaign meeting.

Last week a voter told me that she thought Cameron should win the General Election: nothing strange about this - except that she was the first person to tell me so and I have knocked on a lot of doors this year. Cameron does not cast the spell on the electorate that Blair did in the 1990s.

Clegg's name has been coming up with increasing frequency - and you can imagine that Cable's name comes up too. And people have been very positive. I didn't want to place too much faith in this. People might be saying what I want to hear.

But when I got home I found a message pointing out that Clegg was as popular as any Liberal Leader for ages according to YouGov. And then I spotted the poll in the Times putting Labour and the Tories down four a piece, and the Liberal Democrats up four.

All of which is quite encouraging.

I also found that the Telegraph has moved on to stories of Tory grandees having their moats cleaned out by the taxpayer. Some days you would like everyone to read the Telegraph...

Out and about in Essex

2009-05-10T21:24:00.004+01:00

This has been quite a busy weekend - after a busy week. I think I had at least one spell talking to residents in Southend every day until today. There were also a couple of radio interviews last week - one of which headed up news stories on Radio Southend on Friday.

I also had a couple of public meetings. One was on the proposals to extend the runway at Southend Airport, at which I spoke from the audience. The second, on Friday evening, was organised by the PCS union, and dealt with Europe. I enjoyed this greatly - although I am pretty sure no one changed their mind about how they were going to vote.

Saturday was ridiculously hectic. We did a session talking to residents in Leigh Ward on Saturday morning. I then went to Chalkwell ward for the second half of a Lib Dem coffee morning. After that I nipped over to Rayleigh to pick up some leaflets, then called in to sign up a new member in Eastwood.

I got back just in time for a second spell talking to voters in Westborough Ward - which finally lasted from 3.30pm until after 6pm. Both morning and afternoon sessions produced some very good contacts.

This left me just enough time to pass by Chalkwell Park (where I have some casework) and watch a few overs of cricket. I think it was at this point that I noticed that the only thing I had eaten since breakfast was a biscuit at the coffee morning. From the Park (no time to change)I heading over to Harlow. This was light relief - John Strachan had invited me to the thank you party after his triumph in the recent Staple Tye by-election (I had helped on the morning of polling day).

It is always good to see Harlow Liberal Democrats - they are such a hard-working, down-to-earth and successful team. They should be being squeezed (Labour's majority was only 97 over the Tories in 2005). But instead they are taking on well-financed Tory and Labour campaigns and winning. And they were certainly in a good mood this weekend!

This (Sunday) morning was more relaxed. I knocked out a leaflet and answered some letters, while keeping half an eye on Andrew Marr and the Politics Show. Then I went over to Brentwood, to join David Kendall for an afternoon talking to residents.

David is getting a very good response from residents - and Brentwood Liberal Democrats are another great team.

Then back to Southend, where it was still light enough to take a few photos for a street letter.

Clegg at PMQs

2009-05-06T15:59:00.002+01:00

Nick Clegg had another stormer at Prime Minister's Questions today.

Political incorrectness gone mad!

2009-05-01T23:29:00.003+01:00

Southend is in the news for the wrong reasons today, as the story of a local Conservatives stupid email ripples around.

The Echo has the skinny.

Chris Walker, who represents Eastwood Park ward, has caused quite a storm among his peers over the pictures of naked women with anti-Islamic text.

The e-mail said Islamic men would have to commit suicide if they saw a woman, other than their wife, naked, and that all British women should walk the streets naked on Sunday afternoons to weed out terrorists.

It was accompanied by a number of pictures of naked women, and ended with the words Land of Hope and Glory and a picture of the Union Flag.

If you have stopped laughing, I'll continue...but if you think this is funny,you are probably on your own. It just seems an exercise in bieng politically incorrent for the sake of it. There seems general agreement that one thing this "joke" isn't, is funny.

There seems to be a slight possibility that the Tories will withdraw the whip from Walker - although their slim overall majority on the Council probably means that they will draw back from this. Personally I think Councillor Walker should think about whether he is cut out for the role he is trying to fulfill.

There are lots of funny jokes about faith - I certainly don't think that it should be off-limits for humour. Here's one that does make me laugh.

A beautiful morning here in Southend

2009-05-01T12:55:00.002+01:00

And I spent it talking residents in a fairly leisurely fashion. A couple of the people I met were people who had usually voted for other parties, but were already coming to the conclusion that they really had more in common with the Liberal Democrats.

The Gurkha vote came up quite frequently, and someone also told me that they generally voted Liberal Democrat because they supported PR. This doesn't happen everyday!

And a couple of people volunteering to do some delivery - perhaps it is the sunny weather that does it!

Congratulations to the Harlow team

2009-05-01T00:52:00.003+01:00

I spent three hours this morning knocking up in Staple Tye. Harlow had a very tight result in the last General Election, and both Labour and the Tories are putting a lot of resources into the seat.

So congratulations to our local team (there is a great team of activists in Harlow) for a great victory:

UKIP 66 (+66)
LAB 329 (+57)
CON 544 (-304)
LIB DEM 604 (+48)

LIB DEM GAIN (from Con) - MAJ 60

New COUNCIL Con 18(-1), LibDem 9(+1), Lab 6. Conservative Maj 3 (down2)

John Strachan will make a great councillor for Staple Tye.

The Conservatives will be concerned that they can't hold seats in Harlow.

And I am relieved. I came back for a meeting that finally didn't take place - and would have felt very bad if John had lost by a handful.

As it was, I spent a pleasant evening talking to residents in Southend.

Oppose the runway extension!

2009-04-29T21:03:00.006+01:00

Proposals for the expansion of Southend Airport are one of the big issues here in Southend. This afternoon I met with some committee members of the Stop Airport Extension Now campaign. This is what I told them:

“My gut instinct has always been that the plans were a bad thing for the town. But I have taken my time to consult all those concerned. I have visited the airport to talk to management there. I have spoken to SAEN. And I have spoken to hundreds of local residents.

“Expanding the airport runs counter to national Liberal Democrat policy. We do not see any merit in encouraging an expansion of air transport. But I wanted to be sure that our policy was in the interests of Southend too. I am now convinced.

“Supporters of expansion have to show that it will create jobs, without posing unacceptable problems in terms of road congestion, noise, safety and planning blight. I believe they have failed on all counts.

“Jobs directly related to the airport will be minimial. And Southend already has good air connections through London City and Stansted. We have nothing to gain on this score.

“Road congestion is already chronic in Southend – especially around the A127. Closing Eastwoodbury Lane and attracting many more vehicles to the airport is going to make that worse. The Conservative administration running the Council appear to believe that they can use this to force the government to give them money to upgrade the A127. This is a policy of shooting Southend in the foot to see if the Government will give us a bandage. And it won’t work. The Budget last week indicates that there is no money available for schemes of this kind. And even if there were, the route they have in mind runs through the Public Safety Zone. Department for Transport guidance is quite clear that major roads should not be permitted through the Public Safety Zone.

“Noise is an issue that won’t go away. The ridiculous lease granted to the airport in 1994 offers Southend little protection. The airport is free to fly around 900 night flights a month. Southend risks having more night flights in a week than Southampton airport gets in a year. Now I can understand the attraction some council leaders have for exploring the option of granting an extension of the runway in return for a reduction in night flights. But the existing lease is so generous that it seems unlikely that they can obtain a decent deal for Southend. And anything we gain during the night will be more than compensated for by extra noise during day – when our children are trying to study in schools or to play in the garden.

“Safety and planning blight are closely linked. One of the many weaknesses of the current consultation is that residents are not being told how far the Public Safety Zone – in which further building will be banned – extends. The map in the consultation document does not even show how far the current PSZ stretches. The nearer town the runway comes, and the more aircraft which use the airport the further that zone will cut through the town. Hundreds of residents will find they are no longer allowed to make substantial additions to their house.

“The Park and Ride site included in the proposals, and the changes proposed for the A127 would not, in my view, meet Department for Transport guidelines for development with a Public Safety Zone.

“There is no way these proposals can go ahead.

“I am very proud of the way that Liberal Democrat councillors in Southend West have tried to compensate for the weaknesses of the official consultation exercise by distributing leaflets, and conducting surveys of residents.

“They have been told that they may not say how they have decided to vote. But I hope that they will vote against all the other three groups on the Council - Conservative, Labour and Independent - who seem to be united in forcing these dangerous proposals upon us.”

I have set up an on-line petition for those who oppose the proposals. You can sign it here.

Gurkhas: Clegg leads his team to victory!

2009-04-29T20:34:00.004+01:00

Excuse me if I am a little excited - this is the first time the Liberal Democrats have defeated a government since at least 1997.

Nick Clegg took up the issue of justice for the Gurkhas shortly after becoming leader. He was all but ignored at first. But consistency and purpose have meant that the issue has become ever more visible and ever more popular.

Today Clegg put in a powerful performances in the House of Commons at Prime Minister's Questions, before the Liberal Democrat sponsored debate on the Gurkhas.

The result? First the government made a number of concessions. And then they still lost.

Politics.co.uk capture the moment well:

Let there be no mistake. This is Nick Clegg's day.

The Lib Dem leader first brought the issue to PMQs a year ago, when he brandished the medal of a disenchanted Gurkha veteran.

After a high court victory for campaigners led by Joanna Lumley it seemed the government would have to give in. Instead the proposals they unveiled last week proved a bitter disappointment.

Immigration minister Phil Woolas estimated around 4,000 Gurkhas would be made eligible for settlement rights. Campaigners claimed the qualifying requirements – 20 years' service, a war wound or medal for gallantry among them – meant only around 100 would benefit.

Such was the frustration with this response that, less than a week later, Mr Woolas finds himself humiliated by the Commons majority.

And it's all down to Clegg, who has unquestionably notched up his biggest single achievement since becoming leader of his party.

There is still time for Brown to lose another vote this week - on MPs expenses. Clegg will be a major player on this too.

Thursday: Time improve all our schools

2009-03-28T23:32:00.000Z

I have a letter in the Echo on school choice.

Dear sir

Starting a new school should be a time of great hope for pupils – but those who get their first choice are likely to be just relieved. The Echo article ("Hundreds of pupils fail to get school of choice") reminds us why.Nationally around one child in six will not get their first choice this year. In Southend that figure rises to one child in three. Nearly one in ten children did not get either first, second or third choice. One in twenty will find that their "choice" has been entirely meaningless.

David Laws MP – Liberal Democrat spokesman on education – has spoken out against the current mess, stating that “the key to ending the scramble for good places is to raise standards in those under-performing schools parents currently don't want to send their children to. Ministers should concentrate on making every school an excellent school."

This is what Liberal Democrats want to achieve in government. Our proposals call for raising standards in all local schools; closing the gap between children from rich and poor families and ending the era of ministerial meddling in education. Here in Southend they would mean an increase in schools spending of more than nine million a year.

I am proud to support these policies. My key priorities are to ensure that we have a sound and healthy economy, to improve education and to protect the environment. More excellent schools means fewer disappointed ten- and eleven-year olds - and a brighter future for all of us. In the meantime, disappointed children - and parents - have my deepest sympathy.

Peter Welch
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Southend West
tel: 0784 983 5359
http://peterwelchsouthendwest.blogspot.com/
http://southendlibdems.co.uk/

Thursday: A good start

2009-03-26T14:55:00.003Z

10am: On the doorstep. The first person I find who is in has been waiting for years to speak to us. He immediately says he will display a poster and asks about coming to social events. That is the sort of thing to put a spring in your step. We get good results throughout the morning.

We're on the doorstep until midday, finding a number of supporters.

Now: I'm getting ready to meet and greet Norman Lamb who is coming to visit Southend General Hospital, and then to speak to our annual dinner. I have the White Stripes on - and it occurs to me that I perhaps ought to be getting down with the Lambs and listening to some Grime.

Wednesday

2009-03-26T00:11:00.003Z

I said that I would make up for missing Saturday on the doorstep - and I think I did!

10am meet the rest of the team and start knocking on some doors. Finish shortly after 12.

12.10 Go to speak to some businesses about the local business survey.

1pm Meet with some members of a local campaign group. Very interesting and useful discussion. Outside there is sudden downpour of rain, followed a while later by an equally sudden hailstorm. This is very well timed!

2.30pm A few more businesses...

3.30pm Meet the team again (and say hello to a couple of our veteran members).

3.50pm A little late, but back on the doorstep. This lasts until 7pm. A good session, with some very positive comments. There are a couple of local issues in the area - but people don't seem to agree on either of them.

7pm Go and buy my tea.

8pm Go through the days work, and identify an interesting relationship (which I can't discuss here).

10pm Do a press release.

Really good day - but quite tiring. Must go to bed now.

Saturday

2009-03-22T08:43:00.002Z

I couldn't get out on the doorstep myself (I will make up for it during the week). But a good team got out and found eight volunteers to deliver leaflets. Well done and welcome!

We have Norman Lamb coming to visit us this week - something I am very much looking forward to - and a couple of mid-week action mornings.

Indeed there is a Lib Dem blitz on Essex this coming Thursday: Lamb in Southend, Baker in Stansted, and Brake in Chelmsford.

Up and down in the polls

2009-03-17T19:10:00.002Z

There is a new ICM poll out showing the Liberal Democrats back up at 20%. But this morning MORI showed us at just 14%. No wonder people don't take much notice of polls.

My rule of thumb is that MORI is a very excitable poll, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. The reason for this - as Mike Smithson repeatedly explains - is that it only records people who are 100% certain to vote. This makes it very volatile. Also, Liberal Democrat support tends to be hacked back in MORI polls by the way they weight their samples between public sector/private sector employees.

One interesting point in the MORI poll was the relatively low level of Conservative support. MORI had them at 48% a short while ago - mega-landslide territory. Now they are back in believable territory.

Can you derive a trend from the polls? It is terribly hard. A couple of polls in January suddenly had the Liberal Democrats at 22%. When February polls showed us much lower, it was logical to treat them as freak results. But more recently two companies have shown us at the top end of their range (17% from YouGov, which rarely shows us above 15% and 19% from Populus (which has not had us so high since last June).

My feeling is that voters who change their views from one election to the next have more or less given up on Labour, aren't quite sold on the Conservatives, and are ready to give a look at voting Liberal Democrat. But I would think that even without polls - it is the feeling that comes over quite strongly on the doorstep.

Conference fragments

2009-03-14T14:59:00.005Z

Before I forget, here are some snippets from conference.

Friday 2pm Check into hotel, check emails. Three exuberant messages about the Buxton by-election the previous evening, won by Liberal Democrat Barbara Rix with 71% of the vote. Another gain from the Conservatives.

Friday 3pm Walk over to the conference centre, where the second person I meet is ...Barbara Rix! She tells me that she managed just three hours sleep before coming up for conference (where she is a steward). Fantastic.

Friday 4.30pm Photo with Clegg. I have met him only infrequently in the past and it is some time since I last saw him. I must say that I am impressed (and rather flattered) that he immediately remembers where last we met (Chelmsford) and what we discussed.

Friday 6.30pm Conference rally - one of the best. Everyone speaks well. I'm very impressed by the one speaker who I hadn't heard before and whose name I don't catch - give him a winnable seat!

Friday 8.30pm Education fringe event addressed by David Laws. You always get a good speech from David - usually without notes. He should be coming to Southend in June. I am very much looking forward to it.

Friday 10.30pm It is important to spend some time in the bar at conference. I do.

Saturday 9.30am Debate on Banks. Not the best motion or debate I have heard. Lots of good points made in both, but shotgun rather than rifle. Wish I had put a card in.

Saturday 10.30am conversation and photo with Lorely Burt MP who is very interested in the results of our survey, and makes a number of useful comments and suggestions. I promise to send her a file of the updated results.

Saturday 11.30am: photo and brief conversation with Vince Cable.

Saturday 1pm meeting on the Euro-elections.

Saturday 2.30 pm In the conference hall for Vince Cable's impressively Gladstonian speech on the economy.

Saturday 3.10 pm I'm leaving conference already. Inma is off on a business trip soon and I have to get back to look after the kids.

Saturday 3.50 pm Phone goes, but it is in the back of the car and anyway I am driving.

Saturday 7.10pm Back in Essex I remember the missed call and call the number back. It is someone who wants to join. In the meantime she has spoken to someone else, and arranged to come to a social event and pay her subscription fee. She describes her decision like this "I got your leaflet and thought that Vince Cable is saying sensible things I agreed with. And I like your leader, Nick Clegg. So I though I should join." A nice finish to conference.

Cameron: the apology that isn't.

2009-03-14T13:38:00.002Z

David Cameron is gaining some coverage for his apology for backing Labour's analysis of the economy throughout his period as party leader. Except that he hasn't really apologised.
He could have owned-up to the failings of the Conservative Party - which are, very largely his own. This would have been reasonable. It is pretty clear that Cameron went far too far in backing Labour. Who can forget his response to the last Brown Budget (the one that doubled the income tax rate for people in the old 10% bracket)? Cameron was so aligned with Brown on this, that he announced that Brown had adopted Conservative policy.
But Cameron did not own up to the unique, particular faults of the Conservative Party. The Telegraph reports Cameron as follows:

"Do I believe we did enough to warn about the rising levels of corporate debt, banking debt and borrowing from abroad? No. And there are other areas of economic policy where I look back now and think we would have done it differently if we had the time again.
"For example, while we warned that it was wrong and complacent to claim that boom and bust had been abolished…we based our plans on the hope that economic growth would continue.
"All parties signed up to this cosy economic consensus. It is only by being honest about the past that we can get things right for the future"

Read the penultimate sentence again. Then the final one. It is not true that "all parties signed up to this cosy economic consensus". Vince Cable has been warning of a debt-fueled bubble since at least 2005. As this is not true it follows that Cameron is not being - wittingly or unwittingly - being honest about the past.

Indeed Vince was clearly worried about where we headed as long ago as December 2003, when he made the following speech in the House of Commons:

Something is seriously wrong when a reputable bank, like the Royal Bank of Scotland, can send out a gold card with a £10,000 credit limit to a dog called Monty. The irony of the situation is that if Monty had wanted to invest £10,000 for his old age in the kennels, he would have had to bring in a financial adviser who would have spent an hour checking that the product was not being mis-sold. There is absolutely no restraint on excessive credit expansion. Indeed, in supermarkets like Homebase many of us are pursued by people with clipboards asking, "Will you take £5,000 worth of credit from our credit card company?" Is this a sensible, sustainable way to maintain the economy? Both sides would probably answer, "There is not a great deal we can do about it because we have a market economy".
Rightly, we have a liberalised credit market and of course one cannot order banks and credit companies to do this or that. Nevertheless, surely the Chancellor should acknowledge publicly that there is a serious problem. He could start to take various steps. He should be talking to the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority about whether it is possible, as already happens at an international level with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to define what is sustainable private debt, to set out some objectives for the banks in terms of prudent loan-to-value ratios or income multiples and to name and shame banks that go beyond that level.

So the cosy consensus that Cameron talks of isn't one that involves all the main parties. It is quite simply the Lab-Con pact that took us into Iraq, saw students paying tuition fees, and blundered into the present economic crisis.

Lamont famously spoke of the Major government seeming to be "in office, but not in power". You might characterise the Cameron Conservatives as "on the Opposition benches, but not in opposition".

The Wages of Spin

2009-03-05T12:49:00.002Z

There is a euphoric report on the success of Southend Council on the Echo website. Beneath a headline "Southend Council is rated as one of the best in the country" a group of ecstatic council officers wave and smile for the camera.

It seems a bit churlish to question this, but something didn´t seem to add up. Southend has been rated as a 3 star authority - not 4 star. And as recently as December, Southend rated just 1 star on an assessment of Supporting People.

So what do the figures really show?

The Audit Commission gives the star ratings for 149 authorities in England. Of these 62 got 4 stars, 57 got 3 stars, and only 30 got 2 or fewer. So on this measure, Southend´s council certainly isn´t in the top tier.

Of course you could argue that Southend can only be compared with other unitary autorities. But this doesn´t help much. Of the 46 authorities in this category, 12 got the top rating, 15 got two stars or less, and 19 - Southend included - got 3 stars.

One of the best? Hardly. One of the worst? No.

A rude passage from Hamlet comes to mind:

Guildenstern: On Fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Hamlet: Nor the soles of her shoe?
Rosencrantz: Neither, my lord.
Hamlet: Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours?
Guildenstern: Faith, her privates we.

Meanwhile on Facebook

2009-03-04T18:03:00.002Z

I have a new Page. One of the first things that happened as a result of this was that someone offered a donation to our campaign. It hasn't arrived yet (as far as I know) but it is a promising start.

Suggestions for improving the page are welcome. Especially good ones.

Saturday: massive response to lib dem survey.

2009-02-28T23:31:00.003Z

9.30am Try out a new knock and drop survey form. Lots of people out, of course, but friendly response generally. Wander back to collect them and find that about 25% of the forms we have given out come back. It will be interesting to see if any come back through the post.

11.30am: arrive at Leigh Coffee Morning. Larger attendance than usual (and that is before my kids arrive).

3.00pm On the seafront, enjoying the sunshine. Warm enough to buy the kids an icecream. Coffee at Doodahs.

4.30pm Second session surveying residents. More outs this time, but some very helpful responses. Overall for the day we seem to have a 20% response rate - perhaps better.

8.00pm Call in on the St Laurence ward quiz night. Not able to stay, sadly.

Friday: visiting some larger local employers plus tapas

2009-02-28T00:35:00.003Z

8am: at the airport for a visit and discussion of the plans to extend the runway. Two and a quarter hours of discussion, and site visits for Graham Longley and myself.

3pm: visit to KeyMed, probably the biggest private-sector employer in Southend and a tremendous company. I am tremendously impressed, in many ways. We are there for longer than I expected - but I haven't seen everything yet. Very much hope to return in the future.One of the issues that emerges is the extent to which the single market is important to KeyMed.

8pm: Tapas evening thanks to my wife. Kids provide the cabaret in their flamenco dresses (we know how to do these things). A nice mix of socialising and fundraising.

Fighting for our Freedoms - now and then.

2009-02-26T22:01:00.005Z

"The Conservatives started curtailing our liberties in a mild way by retaining after World War 1 certain aspects of the Defence of the Realm Act...but their performance was insignificant compared to the orgy of controls and restrictions in which the Socialists indulged. The list of your rights that the Liberals would restore is too long for this page - but did you know that it is thanks to a Liberal, Harry Willcock, that you do not still need to carry and identity card..?"

So wrote Heather Harvey in her Southend West election leaflet in 1959. Things - and Liberals - don't seem to have changed much over the last fifty years.

I was pleased to see Chris Huhne relaunching Nick Clegg's Freedom Bill. Better Government through fewer laws is the aim. The Bill would repeal twenty infringements on our freedoms. This is how the Guardian summed it up.

Measures in the Lib Dem bill include abolishing the veto on the Freedom of Information Act, used for the first time this week by Jack Straw, the justice minister, to block publication of the minutes of two cabinet meetings held in the run-up to the Iraq war.

The wishlist also includes halving the period of detention without charge from 28 to 14 days, scrapping the ID card scheme, removing all innocent people from the DNA database other than those tried for a violent or sexual offences, and restricting the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to serious and terrorist offences to stop councils and other public bodies "snooping" on citizens.

I'm a great believer in the potential for scrapping laws. In fact I would like to see a revival of the original Freedom Bill proposals. When Clegg first unveiled this at a Liberal Democrat party conference it was going to repeal hundreds of offences and petty rules. Clegg himself cut back later versions to focus on civil liberties issues alone, and in terms of the clarity of the proposals this is probably a good thing. But I would sign up for a manifesto commitment to take a hundred laws off the statute book - and I think most people would agree with us.

Coincidentally, the Economist has a good piece on Civil Liberties this week. It reminds us how poor the Tories are on these subjects:

As for the Tories, they are recent and wavering converts to the eccentrics’ cause. Chris Grayling, the new shadow home secretary, has made manly noises about wanting “fewer rights, more wrongs”. Other leading Tories are privately more authoritarian than their party’s officially liberal line.

The Economist argues that the Liberal Democrats are needed to keep them honest. Personally I think the country needs a lengthy spell of liberal government to restore our liberties and freedoms. I wouldn't want us to have the same fears and complaints as Heather Harvey, fifty years from now.

Business is bad.

2009-02-26T14:39:00.002Z

I spent this morning in and out of shops, reporting back on the business survey.

My first call this morning was the first business I had called on back in January. First time around he was one of the most positive responses. The owner told me that he would be less positive now. The number of customers was constant on the same period last year, but they are now spending less money. This seems to be the consistent refrain. I heard a similar story in a used car showroom - and also that the fall in new car sales was cutting off their supply.

Yesterday I called on a shop that had decided to cease trading since the date of our survey. This was one of the businesses that had not replied to the survey.

These are just a few examples, but they calm my doubts that there might be a significant pessimism bias in our results.

Vote for Heather Harvey

2009-02-25T22:26:00.007Z

The last by-election in Southend West took place fifty years ago. It saw the Liberals leapfrog into second place - a position we have held for most elections since (we came third in 1966, 1970 and 2001.

This morning we got together a number of Liberals from that period - all of whom are still active. In total, I think eighteen Liberal Democrats accounted for 680 years of membership and activism. The senior seven accounted for 380 years membership between them.

There was a good collection of old photos and memorabilia on hand. You can find an election leaflet here.

I was impressed at how much of it remained relevant today. Just a social event - no asking for votes, no asking for money - but uplifting and enormous fun.

That took care of the morning. A few of us spent the afternoon talking to businesses, reporting back on the local business survey. There was also time to get hold of our next piece of literature.

Evening meal with the kids in the Peterboat, in Old Leigh.

Tuesday: reporting back.

2009-02-24T23:07:00.003Z

By 9.30am a few of those councillors have made it to my flat to start the report back on the survey. We spend the morning delivering leaflets to shops and businesses, informing them on the results of our business survey.

Some results are still coming in either over the internet (at http://www.libertyresearch.org.uk/take/508 ) or through the mail. It would be good to get a few more in though.

There is a very good response. halfway through the morning Graham Longley calls to tell me that Southend Radio want to do an interview on the survey results. There is still time to call in on the Leigh Times before heading over to the other side of town.

The interview takes place on the terrace of the radio station, in the sunshine but under dark dramatic skies. It seems to go pretty well.

The interviewer smiles when I mention Vince Cable. Once we are finished he tells me that as a student he did a telephone interview with Vince - and was impressed that he could get through to speak to him in person. I imagine that these days it would be harder to achieve - but also that Vince would do it if he could.

That is the end of political work for the day - except for a couple of calls and emails from print journalists. But I do spend a lot of time talking to estate agents.

Best day yet - but I wish I had been able to spend more time on the report back.

Monday: group meeting with the councillors.

2009-02-24T23:02:00.002Z

I am working in London on Monday, but get back for the evening.

I don't make a habit of attending group meetings, but there are a couple of things coming up that I feel we ought to discuss, so for once I go along. You have to feel sorry for councillors when you see the long sets of minutes and decisions they are meant to read. We are there until 10.15.

Sunday is for campaign committee

2009-02-24T22:57:00.002Z

Sunday starts at 10am with a campaign committee to talk about the Euro-campaign. A good discussion, a lot of ideas and a good deal of consensus (two qualities that don't always go together). Peter Wexham, candidate last time around and a Leigh councillor is there. This is good because he is both experienced and very practical. Indeed he solves one of the problems on our list (but a couple of days later, rather than on the spot).

Saturday

2009-02-24T22:52:00.003Z

I felt this was a bit lazy. Late start, breakfast cum brunch with the kids in My Kitchen in Leigh Road, then onto the Leigh Ward coffee morning.

This hosted by Al Smulian (father of Mark, from Liberator). Everyone there is busy stuffing envelopes, which is good to see.

In the afternoon, a good spell of delivery recruitment. One of the volunteers strikes me as someone who would make a good councillor.

Sunday deliveries

2009-02-15T21:41:00.002Z

A good-sized group of Liberal Democrats met at 10am for a spot of delivery - and found that ninety minutes later they had covered the best part of a ward. This was very satisfying - as were some supportive comments from residents as we handed leaflets over.

Well done everyone.

I used to occassionally ponder what the political reaction would be if the Lib Dems overtook Labour, it could be a real game changer.

2009-02-14T23:29:00.006Z

It’s starting to look possible again.

That was Anthony Wells on UK Polling Report.

He was discussing the latest ComRes poll which has some very encouraging figures for Liberal Democrats
CON 41%(-2),
LAB 25% (-3),
LDEM 22% (+6)

This morning - on the way to Cambridge (see earlier article) we were discussing the recent polls from ICM and Populus which were also very good for the Liberal Democrats. (They showed us up 6% and 3% respectively). None of us were inclined to take them at face value. One poll doesn't tell you very much - they all fluctuate. Two polls saying the same thing leads to a certain amount of optimism. But poll number three starts looking like a trend.

Opinion ought not to be influenced by polls, but we all know that it is.

In January the press were saying that the Liberal Democrats had had the most impressive response to the economic crisis, but had little to show for it in the polls. The second half of this analysis is going to need to be discarded.

Saturday

2009-02-14T23:21:00.002Z

Training in Cambridge today. Three of us went from Southend, and covered the range of courses n offer. Good to see so many people from around the region, and make plans for the next couple of months.

Then in the evening a quiz night in Leigh - which was very well attended. Good news because we need the money.

Friday

2009-02-14T23:19:00.002Z

Friday was a good day. The snow disappeared and the sun came out.

Lots of leaflets went out, lots of material came together for efforts over the next couple of weeks. And we got on the doorstep and recuited a number of new deliverers.

More snow.

2009-02-12T22:46:00.001Z

Just back from the St Laurence and Eastwood branch meeting. Southend is covered in snow once more.

Leigh Times

2009-02-12T19:16:00.003Z

The Leigh Times is one of the best free newspapers I know. It is published once a fortnight, and packs in a lot of good editorial material among the advertising.

One of the features of the newspaper is that it gives a column each edition to a local political figure. This time around it is my turn. And as I can't point it to you on the internet, I have reproduced the text below.

The Lib Dem Team also features as we were photographed surveying local businesses a fortnight ago. I said it was a good newspaper, didn't I?

COLD WIND OF RECESSION

Just how hard is it hitting local people?

As I sit down to write these words, Leigh-on-Sea – and all of Southend – is in the grip of a chill wind from the east. Outside my window I see snow lying thick upon on the roofs and pavements, children launching snowballs across Leigh Road, and cars turning gingerly into slushy streets. The forecast for the next few days is of more snow and cold – and the shop across the street has just told me that they will have no bread or milk delivered today.

Another kind of chill wind is blowing through our town at the moment. One that will cause infinitely more damage than this cold snap. It is the cold wind of recession. Together with Graham Longley (candidate in Southend East), and a band of Liberal Democrat volunteers I have spent much of the last month finding out how hard it is hitting our local businesses.

We have been out talking to local businesses. We have also invited them to complete a survey on how their business is going.

This is part of a national effort: Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, is keen that we should be the party that takes the time to listen. Vince Cable, our Shadow Chancellor is determined that we should keep our finger on the pulse of the economy. So we are keeping both of them happy.

We have made a special effort in Southend. Around one-hundred and fifty businesses have returned the survey already – more than we expected. Vince Cable has asked us to thank Southend businesses for their response.

It is too soon to give results – forms are still coming in. But first impressions confirm that businesses are facing a very difficult year. Some of the family firms we have spoken to, tell a harrowing tale: they risk losing not just their businesses, not just their savings, but also their hopes and dreams for the future.

Many people who work in our local shops and businesses are already feeling the pain. Hours are being reduced, or staff laid off. Neighbours who already live on modest incomes now have to cope with less. As they spend less, other businesses suffer in turn.

Local businessmen are angry about the government’s complacency. They remember Brown´s claim to have beaten boom and bust. The Labour government refused to admit that the economy could not expand for ever on the basis of higher and higher levels of personal debt. The Conservative opposition didn’t see any problem either. Their leader began his response to Brown’s last Budget as Chancellor by saying that Brown was adopting Tory policies (a truer statement than either would care to remember). And the Tories have only recently abandoned their policy of sticking to Brown’s spending plans.

Vince Cable was one of the few politicians to warn that we couldn’t go on in the old way. And he was the first to call for urgent action as the crisis deepened last year. In September, Liberal Democrats called for lower taxes on the lower paid. And in October Vince Cable shocked the political world by calling for an emergency 2% cut in interest rates. When Vince says that Labour have done too little, too late, he means it.

Faced with economic crisis, it is easy to think that as individuals there is nothing we can do. But we are never powerless. Locally we could all decide to support our local shops wherever possible. Local Liberal Democrat councillors are asking why Southend Borough Council has been so poor at granting local business rate relief. According to the Essex Federation of Small Businesses, only 36% of the businesses entitled to relief in Southend actually receive it. In Liberal Democrat-controlled Colchester, that figure rises to 84%.

Still the big decisions need to be taken nationally and internationally. The government will need to start listening to Vince Cable. Liberal Democrats in Southend are determined to play our role.

Outside – as I write this article - it is still snowing. But the snow will be a memory by the time you read this. The cold winds of recession are likely to be with us for a lot longer.

Visitor

Boris Johnson was a visitor to the Estuary the other week, sailing in to stake a claim for a new airport. (I call it NIBBY airport - not in Boris’s backyard). I can see the case for moving air traffic further from housing. But I am against his threat of a 24 hour a day, seven days a week, monster airport between Southend and Sheerness. It should be out of the question. Except that the Tories now say they are in favour of both scrapping the proposed third runway at Heathrow (good idea) and at the same time increasing the amount of air traffic in the south east (bad idea). So it is a threat we will have to take seriously.

I wonder whether Boris is up to the task. His scheme involves the most improbable technical challenges (building underground tunnels through the mud of Foulness to huge artificial islands between Southend and Kent). This would task even a competent man.

And this morning I doubt his competence. The radio says that there is a good rail service into London, and that even Eurostar is operating. But the country has been brought to a standstill because London’s Mayor has not managed to get either London buses or the underground working.

Incredible, isn’t it? Sort the buses out, Boris! And keep your hands off the Estuary.

Peter Welch

peterwelch@southendlibdems.org.uk

Peter Welch is Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Southend West.

What sort of recession is this anyway?

2009-02-09T19:30:00.002Z

Note: I originally wrote this article for Lib Dem Voice, where it was published on 29 January.

Mark Pack asked this very question - What sort of recession is this anyway? - on Liberal Democrat Voice the other day. Yesterday, the IMF offered a top down view which is frankly frightening.
My political activity began in the economic chaos of the early Thatcher years and I live in fear of a return to the levels of unemployment of the 1980s. How does it look from Southend?
Immediately after selection as Liberal Democrat candidates for the two Southend consituencies, Graham Longley and I decided to find out for ourselves. We used the party’s small business survey as a basis for this, and have - with a crowd of volunteers - taken it to many of the shopping and business areas of the town. This Friday and Saturday we will have a big push to complete the survey (drop me a line on peterwelch@southendlibdems.org.uk if you would like to join us). And the survey is now going on-line (so if you are reading this, and run a business in Southend, click here, and spend a few minutes filling in the form).
Some of the stories we have heard are harrowing. One small family partnership explained how the decline in business of the last few months had hit them. It meant that they were in danger of losing not just their life savings, but their hopes and dreams for the future.
What is happening on the High Street is going to feed back into employment, and into the income of the lower paid. Of the first 100 forms returned, more than 40 told us that they had either laid staff off, or reduced hours. And those telling us that there had been no impact on the workforce include a large number of one-person businesses: whose hours were they going to cut?
Are there any “green shoots” out there? Precious few. There are many businesses who claim to be unaffected – but they often write an additional word onto their survey form: “yet”. There are a few who are doing better as a result of the credit crunch – chiefly those businesses which repair, recycle, or refill. Some restaurants tell us that the number of customers they serve has not declined much - but that customers are much less inclined to order the more expensive items on the menu.
The one thing that almost everyone agrees is on is that the 2.5% VAT cut has been at best useless, and at worst an expensive distraction. Predictably the banks and Gordon Brown get most of the blame. But there is also anger at landlords who are unrealistic about rents, and prepared to leave shops empty for long periods.
Despite the gloomy replies, this has been a rewarding activity. Why?
> First we have made a commitment to listening. We have a number of small business owners in the ranks of Southend Liberal Democrats but, individually and collectively, we are learning a great deal about the pressures local businesses face.
> Second we have seen how keen many businesses are keen to pass this information to Vince Cable (I have never known such a high percentage of people complete and return a survey form). Many, many see Vince as the politician who speaks for them on the economy.
> And finally, we have shown that we care and made many new friends.
Times are tough out there, but the shopping streets of Southend do not resemble “desolation row”. This recession has not led us to the misery of the Thatcher years. Not (as so many have written on their survey forms) yet.

* Peter Welch is the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman for Southend West.

Education: A Big Question

2009-02-06T08:33:00.003Z

The Liberal Democrat proposals on schools would mean extra financing of between 9 and 10 million per annum in Southend.

But the impact would probably be much more widely felt, as a useful piece in the Independent shows.

Would the reduction make much difference?

The most often cited research – the STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) research in Tennessee, USA, showed that it was only when class size reduction was significant that there was an identifiable difference in pupil performance. The study compared classes of 13 to 17 pupils (specifically set up for the project) with classes of 22 to 26 pupils, using 7,000 pupils in 79 classes. The researchers found that pupils in smaller classes significantly outperformed their counterparts in the larger classes. Children in the smaller classes also had any special educational needs identified earlier by their teacher.

Are the Lib Dems alone in wanting to reduce class sizes?

They are the only party to come forward with specific proposals for a reduction – and this will be coupled with the introduction of a pupil premium which would give schools more money for each disadvantaged youngster they take on roll.

There is also an interesting piece on the proposals in the Telegraph.

In Southend's press

2009-02-05T17:19:00.004Z

The Echo has a wonderful piece of local history, that reads like a T E B Clarke screenplay.

Between the wars two firms are involved in increasingly bitter competition for the Southend market in trips around the bay. One buys the most modern vessel imaginable - only to be trumped a few months later by a still newer boat.

Then the newest boat is sabotaged - a bomb is slipped into a ventilator and holes its bows.

Years pass, and (in one case, patched up) the boats continue to ply their trade until the war comes. Like many of Southend's small boats, they form part of the flotilla that sails to bring the troops back from Dunkirk.

One is sunk. In the T E B Clarke version, the crew of the stricken boat would be saved by the former rival - a scene of historic reconciliation in the face of he common enemy. In real life, it went down with the loss of life of two of the crew.

A fantastic story, and a real slice of Southend history.

Elsewhere, a bunch of chilly Liberal Democrats are featured in the Yellow Advertiser. At least we are in the on-line version. I haven't seen the paper itself yet.

Sunday Diary

2009-02-03T21:41:00.002Z

Sunday 09:45: Sunday morning planning and drafting session with Graham Longley and others. Aim was to finish by noon, but we eventually finish at around one. Still a very useful session. Leave feeling pretty upbeat.

Outside the wind is getting up, temperature dropping, and scurries of snow are flying over the street. I abandon plans to knock on doors in the afternoon.

Sunday 15:00: Go out on a social call instead. As I approach the door a leaflet drops through the letterbox - and it is one of ours. Good to see that your local party is working even when you aren't!