David's Blog - 2010

Here are my thoughts for some of the day

Sunday, 20th June 2010

My thoughts of the team for wednesday England v Slovenia :-

..............................James...........................

................Dawson....Terry...Upson....................

..Johnson...Gerrard.......J.Cole...... Barry.....A.Cole..

......................Crouch........ Defoe...................

Notes:-

- back three gives more license to Glen Johnson and Ashley Cole to attack

- Crouch & Defoe play well together at Spurs and Pompey

- Joe Cole is a more inventive player who should support the front two better

- Barry plays a more defensive role to allow Steven Gerrard to freedom to attack

- Gerrard plays better on the right hand side with the license to attack at will

- many of the players have played at club together

- with the ball we need to score and this team is better balanced to do that

- without the ball we need to defend and get it back a 5 man midfield assist in this task

Comments.

Wednesday, 19th May 2010

To change the way government works is essential to reform the country as a whole, so that the improvements to our living standards really happen. That is why the the announcement today of the biggest shake up of British democracy since the Great Reform Act of 1832 is so important, without proper governace of a country it is impossible to achieve real reform and improve in the country. That is also why there is this need for a fundamental resettlement of the relationship between state and citizen that puts people, not Whitehall, in charge.

The aim is to doing this in three steps:-

• Step one - repeal all of the intrusive and unnecessary laws that inhibit people's freedom. This means scrapping ID cards, halting the second generation of biometric passports, radically reforming the DNA database, ending the ContactPoint children's database and stopping the fingerprinting of children without parent's permission.

• Step two - reform our politics so it is open, transparent and decent. So there will be an elected House of Lords, fixed termed parliaments and strengthening parliament so it can hold the executive to account. Under the plans voters will have the power to recall corrupt MPs, there will be a register of lobbyists and a cap on donations. And most importantly give people a chance to vote in a referendum on our outdated and undemocratic electoral system.

• Step three - radically redistribute power away from the centre, into your communities, your homes and your hands. By strengthening local democracy and empower local people whilst scrapping layers of unnecessary top-down Whitehall bureaucracy. And implement further devolution to the nations and regions of Britain.

BBC report: Nick Clegg pledges biggest political reforms since 1832.

Comments.

Friday, 16th April 2010

David Cameron: 'Clegg Had A Good Debate'

For once I agree with David Cameron "Nick Clegg had a good debate", it helped greatly that Nick Clegg is a leader of a party with real detailed policies to really change the country for the better

Tory leader David Cameron has conceded that Nick Clegg "had a good debate" at the first of the historic events. Speaking to BBC Manchester, Mr Cameron said he had enjoyed answering "the big questions" but admitted the Lib Dem leader, who has been declared the winner in several polls, did well.

The strong showing for Mr Clegg among viewers of last night's debate, is reflected in the latest national poll where Lib Dem support is up by three per cent.

The final analysis of the ComRes survey for ITV puts the Conservatives on 35%, Labour on 28% and Liberal Democrats on 24%.

This compares to a ComRes/ITV poll broadcast on 14 April showing the Conservatives on 35%, Labour on 29% and Liberal Democrats on 21%.

The first audience figures reveal 9.9 million people tuned in for the first TV debate.

BBC report: Election debate praise for Clegg from Brown and Cameron.

Comments.

Wednesday, 14th April 2010

Sorry does not cut it, there must be a plan

At last Gordon Brown has admitted he got it wrong despite all the warnings from the Liberal Democrats and Vince Cable in particular that there needed to be a change to banking regulation. Yet still he refuses to have any real reform of the financial sector or the bonus culture that led to the problem.

And as Vince Cable says "Only the Liberal Democrats have clear plans to break up the banks so that the recklessness of some bankers can never again hold the taxpayer to ransom"

Commenting on Gordon Brown's admission that it was a mistake not to have taken a tougher line with the banks when he was Chancellor, Vince Cable said:

"It's not enough just to hold your hands up and say sorry without having a plan for making sure that the same thing doesn't happen again.

"Gordon Brown's admission that he was swayed by the pleas of the City shows the danger of Tory plans to base economic policy on the wishes of vested interests. The only people that we should be thinking about are the British people and what's best for them.

"The Liberal Democrats have clear plans to break up the banks so that the recklessness of some bankers can never again hold the taxpayer to ransom."

Comments.

Sunday, 21st March 2010

'Harry Potter' will be voting Lib Dem

Daniel Radcliffe

Actor and star of block buster Harry Potter film series, Daniel Radcliffe, has said:-

"I'll be voting Lib Dem, without a shadow of a doubt"

He also made two very good comments firstly:-

"Nick Clegg rang me and we had a good chat. He's seriously impressive."

Which I too have always thought as soon as I discovered that Nick can speak five languages i.e. English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish. Daniel Radcliffe's second comment was:-

"David Cameron is barely distinguishable from Tony Blair"

Again a good observation.

Daily Mail: Harry lends his magic to Lib Dem's campaign.

BBC report: Potter star 'will vote Lib Dem'.

Comments.

Tuesday, 16th March 2010

Tory immigration policy worst of both worlds

The immigration system is in chaos after years of incompetent management. The Government has failed to plan properly for new migrants, making it harder for people to integrate. We have no idea how many people are here illegally, and we don't even have exit checks at our airports to ensure people here on temporary visas go home on time.

However it would be wrong to try and "pull up the drawbridge". Britain has always been an open, welcoming country, and thousands of businesses, schools and hospitals rely on people who've come to live here from overseas. But you have to manage migration so it benefits Britain and is fair for everyone.

Yet strangely it is only the Liberal Democrats are calling for tougher immigration control in densely populated areas like London and the South East while allowing more migrants elsewhere.

In a keynote speech to the Policy Exchange, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne MP said that an overall national limit of the sort proposed by the Tories would be too lax in London and the South East and too tough in Scotland, he said:

"Immigration is vital to our economy but lots of people are worried by the issue because of Labour's catastrophic mismanagement of the system. If we are to make the case for a liberal immigration policy, we have to give the public confidence that the flow is properly managed and the pace of change is reasonable."

"The Liberal Democrats are the only party offering a hard-headed assessment of the needs of different regions and parts of the economy. We need a system that makes migrants go to those areas that most need them."

"The Tory policy of pulling up the drawbridge because we have reached an arbitrary national limit would bring in the worst of all worlds. Immigrants would continue to crowd into the most populous parts of the country - making the policy too lax for the South East of England and too tight for Scotland."

To have a effective immigration policy we should have:-

• Exit checks - we must count people out as well as in if we are to effectively manage immigration and these checks should be immediately reintroduce.

• Focus deportation efforts on criminals - whilst let law-abiding families earn citizenship.

• A regional points-based system - to ensure migrants go where they are needed.

• UK Border Force - that is a strong, unified, co-ordinated National Border Force with police powers to protect our borders effectively.

David's Views: Immigration.

Comments.

Monday, 4th January 2010

Tory sums do not stack up

With the current mess in the public finances what is needed is a clear approach that is fully budgeted. Having fully budgeted out policies is something that the Liberal Democrats have always done and will continue to do. It is simply not viable for a major political party, such as the Conservative, to claim they are an alternative governing party without having clear policies on the Governments finances, particularly at a time of severe Government debt.

The mess of the Conservative Party is particular highlighted by their plans or rather lack of them over recognising marriage in the tax system. They say it is something they wish to do but don't say how or when, so it is a pretty unclear plan to say the least. The only tax proposal they are clear on is removing inheritance tax from all estates up one million pounds for single people and two million pounds for couples.

In stark contrast as a Liberal Democrat party we have said that we would:-

• Increase income tax threshold to £10,000 - increasing the starting point for income tax would remove nearly 4 million of very low earners from paying tax and reduce the tax burden on many other low and middle income earners. In fact it would cut the average working age person's income tax bill by £700 and cut average pensioner's income tax bills by £100. This change would be paid for by closing tax loopholes on high earners and switching taxation from income to pollution.

• Increase inheritance tax threshold - to 500,000 single people and one million pounds for couples to fairly a just the tax system to reflect changes in house prices. This would be paid for by decreasing the scope for the very rich who can afford to pay accountants to avoid the tax through the gift of the loopholes.

• Abolish Council Tax - Fairer taxes raised and spent locally. This would reform local government finance so it is fairer and communities raise more of what they spend. This can only be achieved if council tax is scraped, as it penalises pensioners and people on low incomes, who pay a far higher proportion of their income in council tax than the very rich. It would be replaced with a local income tax which is based on the ability to pay. It would be run through the existing Revenue and Customs Income Tax mechanism - so saving hundreds of millions of pounds by abolishing council tax administration. Under these plans everyone would pay a percentage on all their taxable income to cover the costs providing local services. To give real power back to local government the purse strings ties from central government would be cut, as over time the central government grant to local would reduce along with central government income tax, with this central government cut would be a matching local government income tax increase. The difference in income tax levels to the individual would be zero but the change to local government ability to manage their affairs as local people wish would be immense.

• Correct unfair tax credit system - all apart from the current government agree that a couple's penalty that exists in the tax credit system is unfair and this is why our priority is fair tax and benefits system. So when Government finances allow we would introduce a couple's premium to correct this particular unfairness.

Commenting the Conservative party plans and on David Cameron's decision to stick with his proposed inheritance tax cut and his assertion that it will be paid for by taxing non-doms, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable said:

"It's unbelievable that the Tories are still planning to cut taxes for a handful of millionaires when the majority of people across the country are feeling the squeeze. We need fair tax cuts that put money back in the pockets of ordinary people. The Tory sums simply do not stack up. It is irresponsible and highly misleading for George Osborne to continue to pretend that they do. If Osborne and Cameron can't get these simple sums right how can they possibly be trusted to run the economy."

Tory married tax break: Hope or promise?

Comments.

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