Pragmatic, useful … and bound to be stolen by the government

August 22, 2008

Clegg’s rather badly thought out energy policy yesterday has already been trumped by the rather more practical and down to earth plans launched today by Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne on introducing energy discount cards. The Tory plans will help around 4,000,000 people with energy bills and largely those on the bottom of the income scale. The Citizens Advise Bureau thinks its brilliant and it’ll be run through the Post Office, helping to keep branches open. And after all, why should people who don’t pay by DD or have a bank account have to then pay more for their energy?

Spot the difference; Clegg spouts some “finger in the wind” policy on energy in which they admit to having not done all the research and the numbers don’t add up. Cameron’s Conservatives launch a plan which is practical, pragmatic, helps people and tackles one of the major issues facing families.

So what now? Well, I wouldn’t mind betting this idea now forms part of the government’s autumn economic fightback…

Leave a Comment » | LibDems, cameron, clegg, conservatives, economy, energy, post offices | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

It must be tough in the Clegg household

August 22, 2008

Here he goes again … Nick Clegg was apparently the name with the presentational skills to save the LibDems. And today he uses an interview in The Independent to convince people he feels their pain in the credit crunch. And how does he do this? Well, by claiming his mortgage repayments have soared (on his second £1.3m home in ultra-fashionable Putney) and by saying he’s had to stop shopping at Ocado (the on-line version of Waitrose) and go to Sainsburys instead. Gosh it must be tough for him on just his MPs salery (oh, and his wife’s full time job as a lawyer). Come off it!

This isn’t feleing the pain of the credit crunch, this is a very wealthy man who’s been slightly inconvenienced by it all. So, why say anything at all?

I’m pretty sure no political leader is that impacted – they’re not losing their homes, or turning off the heating or not buying food for their family. But so desperate is Clegg for any publicity that he’s willing to say anything. This may have been a good idea in the eyes of the LibDem spin doctors but I imagine a lot of people who have really felt the crunch will be very angry that their plight is the equivalent to having to shop at Sainsburys rather than Waitrose.

Leave a Comment » | LibDems, clegg, independent | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

Clegg shows leadership over tax review

August 12, 2008

Having been on my holidays, one of the joys of returning home is sifting through all of the political news that you missed whilst in depeest darkest Devon. I understand that the LibDems are now mooting (but not confirming) abandoning Local Income Tax and instead backing a reformed land tax instead. So, let’s check on how all these LibDem sacred cows are doing …

The party of “1p extra tax for education” is now the party of low taxation.
The party of “tough liberalism” now believes you shouldn’t lock anti-social youths up.
The party of students is now considering dumping its opposition to fees.
The party of scrapping the council tax now thinks it may be OK after all, if you tweak it a bit.

Only really the Iraq cow is still there, although fewer and fewer people notice that cow despite the occassional “moo”. And what do I make of all this? Step forward my new hero … Nick Clegg.

Now you’ll be aware (and nobody believed me at the time) that I thought Chris Huhne was a much more dangerous LibDem leader for Cameron to deal with and that Clegg was a lightweight who would snap in the political wind. Although popular opinion may think that to be true (there is no love for Clegg on the doorsteps of Norwich), I think Clegg is (to quote Cameron) building a house with solid foundations.

Gone are the populist LibDem ideas, where the party would run a whole election with only 3 policies (Iraq, council tax and tuition fees). Gone is the idea that the LibDems are too nice, or too gutless, to have a real policy debate. Clegg is taking on his party and good on him.

Whereas the LibDems used to debate goldfish in bags or porn for 16 year olds, they now seem to be addressing some of the “hard choices” (copyright, T Blair) facing Britain.

Nick Clegg has taken a long hard look at their policies and their election result – LibDem PPC in Guildford, Ms Doughty, has long said that the LIT cost her seat in 2005 because it hammered young professionals and working families too hard. She was right, and credit to Clegg for seeing beyond the populism of “axe the tax” to think about an alternative. Louise and I were hundreds of pounds a year worse off under the LibDem LIT at a stage in our lives when we can least afford it, with 2 young kids. How many more people in our position realised this and didn’t vote LibDem as a result?

Even though many of these cows are not yet dead, just wounded, it is clear that Clegg may yet have the political courage to take on his party – even the SDP dwellers. I don’t yet know if he is Blair circa 1994 or Cameron circa 2006, but Clegg has shown in the last week he may yet surprise us all.

Leave a Comment » | LibDems, clegg, council tax, tax | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

Clegg finally signals a change in LibDem tactics

July 29, 2008

Both this morning and late this evening I’ve been out and about helping our teams deliver a massive new survey across the City. The results are coming back fast; and the one strange aspect is the total lack of LibDem support. I’ve been arguing for a while that their support in Norwich is just seeping away and our survey proves just that.

Interestingly today Nick Clegg signalled that his party will now focus on the 50 most vulnerable Labour seats; finally taking notice of those both within and outside of his party who have said that to hurl themselves against the Tory brick wall was nonsense. Fighting Tory seats like mad when Cameron is riding high just made no sense; and now Clegg has admitted this.

However, one LibDem I spoke to today said that this strategy didn’t go far enough. He pointed out that in some seats where the Tories are third but with a large vote – such as Norwich South – that Cameron’s Party could still come through to either come second or even win. Certainly the Sunday Telegraph had Norwich South in the blue column as a result of their polling. My LibDem source says that they ought to target seats where the Tory vote is low and where Labour wouldn’t expect a challenge – a sort of Manchester Withington kind of seat, it was suggested.

Either way, Clegg is still polling lower than Campbell and is still struggling to control his fractious party. A change of electoral focus is a good start to turning that around.

Leave a Comment » | LibDems, clegg | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

LibDems plan £20bn cuts to Health & Education

July 17, 2008

If the Tories had proposed the document launched by Nick Clegg today, to reduce tax and cut the overall level of government spending, then my blog post title is exactly what Labour and the media would have run with.

In fact, no matter what Hague, IDS or Howard said about taxes, Labour would translate that directly into numbers of nurses sacked or children in a class. But now, I believe that things have changed; firstly people have accepted that we are taxed too much, secondly people know that Labour’s throwing money at public services hasn’t worked and thirdly people know there is so much waste in public services that you can cut tax, reduce spending and not impact on frontline service delivery.

So well done Nick Clegg – you are saying what people are thinking and I strongly urge the Tories to make clear their committment to cutting tax and reducing waste. Now is the time to do this. But is it too late for Cameron with Clegg moving onto this turf?

No – for two reasons Principally the tax cut, less government gene is in every Tory and people know we are committed to it, whereas the LibDems seem to have discovered this after being thrashed in by-election after by-election. And also, if Cameron said this then his party would cheer him to the rafters; when Nick Clegg does it the left of his party nearly choke on their breakfast cereals. Clegg may have to fight for this every step of the way with his own party.

So Cameron still has time to make this issue his own.

2 Comments | cameron, clegg, tax | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

LibDems looking "very stupid indeed"?

July 6, 2008

Yesterday’s EDP reported that Nick Clegg got himself tied in knots when trying to justify the LibDem claim of a “two horse race” in Norwich South. The EDP put it to Mr Clegg that it was, in fact, a “four horse race” and his arguement against this seemed pretty lame. Apparently people know that there is no point voting Green or Tory, says Mr Clegg.

Well try telling that to the residents of Bowthorpe, Thorpe Hamlet, Mancroft, Eaton, Nelson, Wensum, Town Close, University – all of which elected either a Tory or a Green or had one or other in a close second place.

If the LibDems go down this line, they’ll make themselves look “very stupid indeed”. Not my words – that of a wise old bird from the party I spoke to yesterday.

But don’t expect the LibDems to be honest with anybody anytime soon.

Leave a Comment » | EDP, LibDems, Norwich South, clegg | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

LibDems Winning Here … in Crewe, Henley & now Glasgow East

June 28, 2008

I have long been an opponent of the slogan “Winning Here”, used by the LibDems, on the basis that if you don’t win here or people don’t believe you can win here then you look utterly ridiculous. Indeed, if you misjudge that prediction then people are less likely to believe it the next time.

For example, there was much amusement in Norwich when the LibDems continued to use that slogan here in 07 and 08, given the dreadful results for the party which saw a volley of seats lost. Knocking on doors around the City, people couldn’t believe the arrogance of the party when everyone knew the LibDems were losing ward after ward.

They are now also taking a kicking from their own side, for ramping their chances in Crewe and Henley and then failing miserably in each. After all, if the LibDems don’t win by-elections then what are they for?

After the events the LibDems are saying they didn’t expect to win either seat; yet oddly enough before the poll these self same LibDems were saying that the result was too close to call!

I understand why they do it; because the LibDems must counter the wasted vote arguement and convince people they are worth voting for because they can win. However they do tend to use it no matter where in the country or what the previous results.

I hope the LibDems have an internal debate about their campaigning style, though from my experience of them they’ll stick their fingers in their ears and hum until it all goes away. I think they ought to ask why they are the most negative and the most personal of all the parties. But, again, I’m sure they won’t.

We await the slogan and the campaign in Glasgow East with some anticipation.

2 Comments | Campaigning, LibDems, clegg, crewe, glasgow east, henley, lord rennard | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

LibDems make another U-turn on Lisbon

June 11, 2008

Tonight Nick Clegg’s ridiculous stance on the Lisbon Treaty go a whole lot more ridiculous after his peers in the House of Lords did another u-turn and outright voted against a referendum.

So now we’ve had a manifesto committment to a public vote, abstention from his MPs and opposition from his peers.

So what do the LibDems think about the biggest European issue around at the moment? Nobody knows because you just can’t pin them down. Still, at least Clegg has the 42 day fiasco to hide behind; but he can’t do it forever.

1 Comment | LibDems, clegg, europe, foreign affairs, referendum | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

Worrying side of the Liberal Youth

March 25, 2008

I had been entertaining myself tonight with the lighter side of politics – browsing through the new website of the Liberal Youth, formerly LDYS. However on reading some of the profiles of the people involved it has worried me a great deal about the type of person getting involved on the organisation.

The new Chairman, Mark Gettleson, claims he most wants to be like Chancellor Palpatine – the eveil Emperor in the Star Wars films, who committs mass murder and genocide. He plunges the universe into an imperialistic state and dominates by force. Hmmm, not exactly a Liberal icon?

The Campaigns Chief, Adi Smith, chooses his historical hero as Nikita Khruschev – I’m not even going there with this one, but this seems a bizarre choice for anyone, let alone an aspiring LibDem MP.

And then there is the “hilarious” Jon Massey who idolises Papa Smurf … please do not let this man near any actual political power.

Bearing in mind that other members of their Exec chose Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, David Lloyd-George, Roy Jenkins, Gladstone or Elizabeth I then it shows that decency does have its place in Liberal Youth!

Now, I’m no old fart and I know that political youth organisations will contain people who are a bit wacky, but these choices made in a public arena must make you question their judgement. And the fact that one of them is Chairman makes it worse.

If I were the LibDems, I’d want this brand new organisation sorted out from the beginning – or its gonna make for some bad headlines for Nick Clegg, who has personally associated himself with them.

3 Comments | LibDems, Liberal Youth, clegg | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

Is Clegg planning to make LibDem frontbench smaller as one silver lining of the Euro-fiasco?

March 5, 2008

One of the points I raised below was the massive size of the LibDem frontbench; roughly half of their parliamenarty party hold “senior” positions. It is notable that Nick Clegg has reshuffled his team by effectivly removing the jobs of the quitting MPs; Tim Farron’s Countryside brief will move the Environment Spokesman Steve Webb, David Heath’s Justice portfolio now moves to Home Affairs Spokesman Chris Huhne and Scottish/N.Ireland Spokesman Alistair Carmichael has his jobs moved to International Development Spokesman Michael Moore.

Firstly, this is fast moving – Clegg did this within an hour of their resignations, meaning he knew about them and has made these decisions before the ink was dry. I think that looks bad on him as a leader. Secondly this could, I’m informed, be part of a plan to slim down his top team in the future to ensure that less MPs can drag his party down by opposing his whip – after all, you can live with awkward backbenchers, but not with maverick frontbenchers.

Obviously Clegg will have to re-appoint a Justice Spokesman but Countryside, Scotland and N.Ireland are likely to be extra part time jobs for some poor unsuspecting LibDem MP. And when he does have the full reshuffle expect a bigger cull.

Leave a Comment » | LibDems, clegg, reshuffle | Permalink
Posted by antonylittle

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