Denzil Coulson

Once again I was privileged to be a voting delegate at our Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in sunny Birmingham. The sun clearly appeared to be shining on our party as the mood was definitely determined, enthusiastic and jubilant in preparing for the coming General Election.

I went to all the debates including the Fair Start for Children debate where I managed to speak during an intervention. In a nutshell, I stated that the UK would be less economically competitive if more graduates are dissuaded from studying further in the UK because of the exhorbitant tuition fees they have to pay. This would leave them with an average debt of over £20 000 once they graduate. I know what it’s like to sit with student debt. After university, I left South Africa and came to the UK to work so that I could pay off the debt I had far sooner than I could in South Africa because of the favourable exchange rate. I ended up living here. Don’t think it won’t happen here. The pound won’t stay strong forever and many graduates will inevitably work elsewhere to pay off debt.

I also attended a fringe meeting on the desperate situation of asylum seekers waiting for their status to be determined as well as hearing the harrowing accounts of children of asylum seekers in detention in places like Yarl’s Wood. We passed a motion this weekend to end child detention in the UK. Just to show how pointless and inhumane the asylum seeker process is can be seen in the number of accounts you hear of asylum seekers waiting years for their status to be determined. Here in Woking, I know of two personally who have been waiting 7 years for their status to be determined. One is a Zimbabwean who hasn’t seen his wife and children in 7 years. But if he goes back, he is certain to be arrested and beaten to death by Mugabe’s henchmen. It cannot be right that these people have to endure further emotional torture of “Will they let me stay or won’t they?” after all the persecution they have gone through in their own country. They have no right to work here until their status is determined and they have to live on £35 per week of food vouchers. Now why would they endure this for years if they weren’t being persecuted in their country? We have to end the culture of disbelief in the Home Office and tabloid press and help these people.

I also attended fringe meetings on the desperate situation in Gaza as well as a lively fringe debate on Afghanistan between Paddy Ashdown and Guardian journalist, Seamus Milne. Milne argued for immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan whereas Paddy argued for a negotiated withdrawal at the right time when the Afghan people have had time up to set up proper democratic and civil society structures. Paddy stated further that if you wanted the Pakistani Government to fall and jihadists to get hold of nuclear weapons, then support immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan. I think that made the point most effectively on this issue.

By the end of the Conference we passed policies on the following big issues that will feature in our General Election manifesto. These are our Four Steps to a Fairer Britain:

Fair taxes.

A new fair start for all children at school.

A rebalanced, fair and green economy.

And clean, open and fair politics.

This is an extract from Nick Clegg’s speech delivered at Conference yesterday. You can read his full speech text here.

“A vote for the Liberal Democrats is a commitment to hope and opportunity.
It’s a vote that says:
I want government to be honest and open.
I want a green economy.
I want fairer taxes.
I want a fairer future for my children and for all our children.
 
“I know there are many people who listen to the Liberal Democrats and really like what they hear.
But you worry that your vote would be wasted. You worry that your choice won’t make enough of a difference. So you are thinking of giving your vote to someone else. Some people are thinking of holding their noses and voting for Brown just to keep out the Conservatives. I say to you: don’t do it.

“Some people are thinking of holding their noses and voting for Cameron just to get rid of Labour. Don’t do it. You have a once in a generation opportunity for real change.
A wasted vote is one that throws that opportunity away.
A wasted vote is one for a party that is stuck in the past.
A wasted vote is one for a party you don’t believe in.
 
“How do you want to feel when you wake up on May 7th and hear the news? Would you smile at the prospect of five more years of Gordon Brown? Would you be thrilled if a Conservative government was now in charge?

“If the answer is no, then don’t give them your vote. If you vote for less… you will get less. If you compromise on them… they will compromise on you. Just good enough – is not good enough any more.
 
“When you think about who to vote for remember that the future of your country is at stake. Whatever you do… do not settle for the way things are.

“Be demanding.
Vote for what you believe in.
Vote with your heart.

“Vote for Change that Works For You.”

It appears that Tory councils take ages to repair basic things such as fences and potholes. Or could it be that Tories never budget for emergencies and make such stringent cuts that either nothing gets done or jobs get done - just very slowly. As you can see, some residents have taken action and tried to fill up the pothole with stones - with little success as the car wheels merely kick the stones out. The leaf fall also indicates how long it is taking for this pothole to be repaired. 

One can certainly blame the recent snowy weather for the road deterioration but this would not have been a serious problem if the road maintenance budget hadn’t been cut so much by the Tories over many years. I only hope that the County Council sorts this out fast before residents start claiming for damage to their cars.

UPDATE

The pothole was finally repaired on Monday 8th March. I am a bit concerned about the quality of the repair. Nevertheless that is another pothole repaired that motorists can feel more comfortable about driving over. It does appear from this SKY NEWS report that the pothole problem is widespread across the UK. According to the Local Government Association, about £10 billion is needed to repair the pothole problem properly across the country. Councils just don’t have that sort of money to repair all these holes after the worst winter in decades. Money is needed from the Labour Government now to repair the problem.

Back in August last year, I reported damaged fencing and fly-tipping in Huntingdon Roadto the Council. After two and a half months of reporting this problem to the Tory-run council to sort out the mess, the fence was finally repaired in late October. I forgot to report this on my blog at the time. Life as a teacher can be quite busy.

As you can see from the photos above, the fence was ruined and the footpath behind Huntingdon Road houses was almost completely blocked by rubbish and fly-tipping. There was also a great deal of fly-tipped rubbish behind the fence leaning over. This is yet more evidence of the Tories running council services down to the point that staff have little money or capacity to clear up the mess in the quickest time possible.

If it wasn’t for my constant nagging, this fence would not have been repaired. Why should it be so difficult for the Tory-run council to get such a basic job repaired and cleaned?

I was shocked - yet again - to hear that the Royal Bank of Scotland will pay out approximately £1.3billion in bonuses when the bank made losses of £3.6 billion during 2009 (read the BBC online report here)! The taxpayer owns 84% of RBS and I am very sure that most people like me are horrified that taxpayers are rewarding banks for failure!

Commenting on this RBS report, Liberal Democrat Shadow Scotland Secretary, Alistair Carmichael said:

“The idea of a bank which is still propped up by taxpayers paying out over a billion in bonuses is offensive. There should be no rewards for failure.

“With people across the country having to tighten their belts, bankers are living on another planet if they think they deserve millions in bonuses.

“RBS is effectively owned by the public. If Gordon Brown really believed in fairness, he would intervene to stop these bonuses going ahead.”

 From my own political experience, if there is one thing that Tories are good at, it is the political smear.

I could not help but wonder why the alleged bullying by Gordon Brown was a front page news story yesterday. Is it because key Tory political operators were ”guiding” journalists in the direction of National Bullying Helpline chief executive, Caroline Pratt, a willing accomplice, as Lord Mandelson claims? And why would a chief executive betray confidentiality and speak openly about bullying at No.10 Downing Street? The fact, at the time of writing this article, that four patrons of the National Bullying Helpline have resigned because of Mrs Pratt’s breaking confidentiality does suggest that this whole episode does have the odious smell of a political smear campaign. 

Even if there is no evidence of an orchestrated smear, it is very interesting that this story broke as the Tory lead in the polls was in freefall. If there is one thing I learnt in politics, it is better to “play the ball - not the man”. Attack Brown on his policies, not his character and it does appear that there is no real foundation to these “bullying” allegations as revealed in this report here.

It appears to me that the Tories “planted a political smear” as they have nothing really to say about how they would take the country in a clear political direction, which explains why Brown’s poll numbers are rising. People generally don’t like how Brown has managed the economy but they seem to trust Cameron even less with safeguarding economic recovery. 

I may be wrong about a Tory political smear. But am I really - considering all of the concerns I have expressed above?

As Tory Council Leader, Cllr John Kingsbury, gloated about Tory “achievements” in his budget speech in the Full Council meeting on Monday night, he played down how our Lib Dem group effectively rescued his Tory administration from serious financial trouble that would have had serious consequences for council services and the council tax burden for our residents.

Had our Lib Dem group not supported the Tories in acquiring ownership of the Wolsey Place Shopping Centre, they would have had a £1.5 million hole in their budget this year. By owning Wolsey Place outright, we voted to buy an asset that guarantees rental income of at least £1.5 million per year. This meant that the council tax rise burden on residents is not as high as it could have been. I seriously don’t think residents would have forgiven any political opposition if it allowed a council to cut services dramatically thereby inreasing the burden on council taxpayers as well to pay more.

I agree with Cllr John Kingsbury on one point only - “our investments have enabled us to keep Council Tax low at an affordable level” but I do not agree that services have been entirely protected as he claims. In my experience as ward councillor as I have mentioned a number of times on this blog, too many of our housing repairs and green maintenance services take too long to complete. This is a direct consequence of staff being overstretched because there are not enough council staff to do the jobs that need to be done.

Tory raiding of reserves in the “good times” to accelerate redundancies in 2007/08 left the council with no reserves to help the council finances in the bad times now. The Tories did not save reserves for a “rainy day” as John Kingsbury claimed in his speech. With the sharp fall in car parking income at the start of the recession, the Tory council was in serious trouble as there were no reserves to “cushion the fall”. Lib Dem support for the Wolsey Place acquisition rescued the Tory administration from serious financial trouble. John Kingsbury should certainly give more credit to the Lib Dems where it is sorely due.

At full council tonight, Woking Tories voted against our Lib Dem council motion to sign up to the national 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon emissions “as close as possible to 10%” in 2010.

Their reason? They stated that Woking was doing enough to reduce carbon emissions. “How arrogant” cried Bryan Cross, one of our Lib Dem councillors lambasting the Tories for their failure to engage on this issue. As I stated in the Council chamber tonight, “if Woking is doing such a good job already on green issues, why not sign up to the campaign to go further?” I stated further that Woking loses its leadership on green issues by not signing up. If Eastleigh, who have even less carbon emissions than Woking can sign up, why can’t we?

It was when I heard Tory councillor, Tony Branigan, stating that Al Gore’s 2006 film, An Inconvenient Truth was “a pack of lies” and another Tory councillor expessing scepticism about global warming, that I realised that Woking Tories are complacent at best on the urgency of tackling climate change and filled with climate change denialism at worst.

Unless we tackle climate change seriously, the economic and social costs locally, nationally and internationally will be greater under this Tory complacency on green policy.

It also shows that David Cameron’s 2007 election slogan of Vote Blue, Go Green was merely a gimmick as the Tory commitment lacks real substance.

On Tuesday, I and my fellow councillors took part in the annual Woking Shopmobility Pancake Race. What surprised me and my team is how well we did!

Not only did we win our heat against the Business Link team but we also won our semi-final race against Cycle Woking! It all came down to the final against Wolsey Place and St John the Baptist school team. Unfortunately youth in the SJB team counted against our best efforts!

Still managing to achieve the “Silver Medal” I think is quite an achievement!  See our winning aproned team in the photo above.

 Figures released today by the Liberal Democrats have revealed that the NHS is facing a £63bn bill for PFI hospitals which are only worth £11bn. The figures also reveal that:

• The first payments for hospitals PFIs began in 1999 and the NHS still owes £58bn on 106 PFI contracts over the next three decades.
• The NHS will have to pay back £7.3bn in PFI payments over the next Parliament alone (2010 - 2015)
• The most expensive PFI contract was for Wythenshawe Hospital where the NHS will pay back 16 times the original capital value.

 Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP, said:

“These figures reveal the disastrous reality of Labour’s stewardship of the NHS.

“We’re entering into one of the most difficult financial periods in the NHS’s history and this “Government’s legacy will be a mountain of debt. Despite the enormous amounts of money we owe for these hospitals, many of them will never end up in public ownership. Hospitals all over the country are mortgaged to the hilt and there are serious concerns that these repayments will lead to cuts in vital services.

“We need a new approach to public services in this country. By setting up an infrastructure bank the Liberal Democrats will ensure that key projects get access to the funding they need to revitalise our economy.

“The Liberal Democrats will change the way the NHS works so that money goes further and patients come first.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This morning our Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne MP, commented that “the biggest hole in the student visa system is caused by the Tory and Labour abolition of exit checks”, which means we do not know if someone has left once their visa runs out.

So - if you are looking for someone to blame for the mismanagement of immigration, look no further than the Labour Government and the Tory Government before them. We need to restore immediate control of our borders.