Toff off!

Vote for real chang

Local wags cover Bruton in social commentary on the eve of the election. This one from the Unionist Club…

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May the farce be with you

A right pair of cuts

Just a bit of background: we all know that Election 2010 ended in a ConDem coalition government. And probably rightly so. The electorate were disenfranchised after 13 years of Labour and had no appetite for the media unsavvy and mistrusted Mr Brown. Labour were hammered at the polls and needed to lick their wounds. But let’s not forget the Tories massively under-performed and the LibDems lost five seats and took a hit in their percentage share of the vote. Moreover, the LibDems ran on a ticket of carefully managed medium-term cuts with no tackling of the deficit in this financial year. Show me the mandate?

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More on the mandate

A poll commissioned by Newsnight back in July showed that four in 10 LibDem voters weren’t backing the coalition. A breach of democracy? Maybe. But 40% seems low to me. I’d be interested to see the results of a similar poll today… and after the October spending review… and a million public sector workers later…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8854870.stm

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6.2 Billion in cuts and counting

Look into my eyes, not around the eyes

To make sure that everyone was paying attention and to get us all warmed up for the spending review Osborne detailed 6.2 Billion in cuts within a fortnight of collecting the keys to No.11. Watch this space…

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_05_10.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8699522.stm

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Area man closes local library

Axe 1500 jobs. Close county farms. Lose local libraries. Now!

Somerset County Council leader Ken Maddock is tripping the light fantastic with the announcement of across-the-board cuts. Almost relishing the idea that he’s ahead of the Downing Street curve Tory Boy Maddock plans to chuck a quarter of the authorities’ workforce on the dole (that’s 1500 regional jobs), sell off 20 county owned farms, ditch plans to build schools and child centres, and close my local library.

But it’s OK: In-The-Red-Ken was quick to apologise for the closure of my library.

“I am very sorry for the people of Bruton but there just doesn’t seem to be another way out of this. We will make it as easy as we can for volunteers to keep the services going,”

Bless. The Big Society starts here. Never mind that the library had over 8000 people visit in 2009-10, has 543 members (including my two kids) and that folk use it to read books, access the net, and stay up to speed with community events.

Maddock went on to announce a second year’s freeze on Council Tax and the outsourcing of grants to a private company to help business and enterprise in the area. ToryTastic.

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/County-council-forced-axe-jobs-library-services-building-projects/article-2625832-detail/article.html

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Local man volunteers to help keep library open

The Big Society starts here. Right here.

Taking him at his word I thought I’d follow up on In-The-Red-Ken’s promise to try and make it easy for “volunteers to keep services going.” (See below). So today I popped into my local library to see if I could offer a shift or three to keep the good people of Bruton reading books.

It turns out we have something of reprieve: thanks to the intervention of the Bruton Ward Library Trust the library will now stay open every Friday until 31st December. A final decision on its future will follow the submission of the Library Review Report to the county council on October 20th.

In the meantime I intend to formally offer my Big Society services to local Tory councillor Anna Groskop to try and keep our library open. And I’ll be writing to Ken to see if he has any free time to lend a volunteering hand too.

Watch this space.

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THE OSBORNE IDENTITY PART XVVIII

George Osborne reckons benefit claimants make a “lifestyle” choice… Really? No doubt then it was a ‘lifestyle’ choice when the Chancellor decided to avoid capital gains tax when he ‘flipped’ and then sold his London home in 2006 for a £748,000 profit. Oh, and look who gleefully joined in the Telegraph’s expenses witch hunt of 2009… Only the Lib Dems’s Treasury spokesman, Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay… http://tinyurl.com/flip-in-hell

And who has just accused the banks of “excessive profiteering”? No! Step forward Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay… http://tinyurl.com/good-lord-lord-oakeshott

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“There are those who will condem us…”

American Express? That'll do nicely

Never a truer word spoken. Not from Clegg at least.

No less than six years after entering the  house as an MP  Nick Clegg today made his first conference speech from a position of previously unimaginable power. Not simply leader of his party, but Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister. Remind me quite how that happened.

Still he’s learned his trade well, and Clegg made a statesmen-like speech of which he and his Tory coalition cohorts should be proud. There was relentless Labour bashing throughout (Ra Ra Ra – we made they right call disaffecting to the right), while simultaneously attempting to reassert his party’s own Lib Dem ‘identity’. Nice try.

My personal favourite passage could have come from any member of the True Blue Bullingdon Club…

“The problems are there. They are real. And we have to solve them. It’s the same as a family with earnings of £26,000 a year who are spending £32,000 a year. Even though they’re already £40,000 in debt. Imagine if that was you. You’d be crippled by the interest payments. You’d set yourself a budget. And you’d try to spend less. That is what this government is doing.”
Simpleton grocer shop patronising political rhetoric at its best.

And then straight to Labour bashing:

“This isn’t new for Liberal Democrats. Speak to councillors who’ve led councils across the country; they know what it’s like to pick up the pieces after Labour spent a community dry. Newcastle, Sheffield, Lambeth, Southwark, and right here in Liverpool. Our Council leaders know the poorest are the ones that suffer when the finances get out of control and money has to be spent on debts. They know there is nothing fair about denying you have a problem and leaving it for the next generation to clear it up. Would you ask your children to pay your credit card bill?” – Er, ‘yes’ retorted someone in the crowd.

Read the full speech here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8691753.stm

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Rich ‘just as bad’ as poor

Another nice snippet from Cleggs’ new centre-cleft school of British politics:

“We all read the headlines about benefit fraud. We all agree it’s wrong when people help themselves to benefits they shouldn’t get. But when the richest people in the country dodge their tax bills that is just as bad. Both come down to stealing money from your neighbours.”

Did I hear that quite right? It’s just as bad for some banker / high-roller / celeb / industry magnate to defraud ‘the British tax payer’ out of serious wedge as it is for people on the breadline cheating the system to feed their families / heat their homes / find a job / and generally get by.

The caring sharing face of ConDemUK. Give me strength.

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ConDems cut Queen’s speech

The Royal Scam

The ConDem’s intention to scrap the 2011 Queen’s speech has been dressed up as a legitimate requirement of the new 5-year fixed term. The fact of the matter is that by delaying the current session of parliament the government is waving aside the constitution to buy more time to push through its controversial legislative programme.

Shadow leader of the Commons Rosie Winterton makes the case succinctly enough:

“This executive decision made using the Queen’s prerogative powers has significant constitutional implications and is an abuse of power.

“No peacetime session of Parliament since the war has lasted for two years. The maximum has been 18 months, at the beginning of a Parliament where the election has taken place in the spring.

“Both the manner of this announcement, and its content, are an affront to Parliament. There was no consultation whatever with the other parties. The Commons was not invited to give its views.

“There is no conceivable justification for this. It has been done solely to ease the passage of controversial legislation.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-fury-at-queens-speech-delay-2078248.html

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