We would vote against a referendum on the treaty and vote that the real referendum that needs to be had is whether we stay in the EU or not…Calamity Clegg

You would have thought that having a new leader was the perfect opportunity to dump this tosh of having a referendum on whether we are in or out. If having a referendum on being in/out of Europe is so important then why is not having one on this treaty - which the Lib Dems promised to give us at the last General election. Even, Nigel Farage of UKIP (who you thought would have supported dear Calamity on this) is saying that:

“So obsessive are the Lib Dems in their belief in the European state that they are breaking their pledge to hold a referendum on the constitutional treaty.”

What Calamity Clegg is forgetting is that this issue is about trust in politicians as much as it is about whether the treaty is a constitution. Instead, Cleggy has decided that the Lib Dems want to demonstrate, to all those that believe this Government is failing, that come a hung Parliament the Lib Dems will be jumping in to bed with Gordon Shrek as soon as possible.

People forget, and the Lib Dems have successfully hidden this for some time, that the Lib Dems are a Euro federalist party who want to cede all this nations powers to Europe. I believe in European co-operation but not Euro-federalism.

Still, David Laws (Lib Dem parliamentary candidate in Yeovil) has already said that those many people in his constituency who want to debate our role in Europe are the “lunatic fringe”, so it is clear that the Lib Dems are not really trying to move this debate on, just trying to get themselves out of their own hole.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Lib Dems oppose referendum vote

The Lib Dems are today arguing that they want to see a new local income tax as a way to raise local funds for local health services. The trouble with this proposal is that hospitals do not, inconveniently, serve just one local Council, so in fact we could see health starvation as Borough’s refuse to fund increased spending or in fact hospitals fail to treat patients from Borough’s who do not put the funding in place.

I have some problems also with health boards being fully elected. In my view electing boards is not going to interest anybody. What they should be doing is making the Chairman of the PCT a full-time elected position so that a single person, rather than gaggles of committees, should form the board. There should also be members of the local authority sitting on that board.

They also seem to think that giving elderly people the right to take the cost of their elderly care and spend it where they want would be more efficient and prevent them from selling their homes. That sounds great, except of course the cost of the care will not change and whether the state pays for it all on a sliding scale based on the value of your assets, or just gives you a set sum that you need to top up to get the care, you are still going to have to use your own money to pay for it.

This all sounds like rehashed, rewarmed rubbish! So sad they chose the day the markets melt-down to launch it - or maybe not!

Next week there is a vote for MPs to vote through above inflation  pay rises for themselves.

I have to admit to being a little bemused why they vote through their own pay rise - maybe it is something I should start in the organisation I run, I wonder how long it would continue trading for!!

The fact is their pay should be linked to the increases given to a grade in the civil service and they should then have no role in it.

However, there is a more interesting hidden element in the new arrangements. Parliament will now be allowing all MPs the cost of having an office both in parliament and in the constituency. For years they have looked at this but have struggled with setting a financial sum to cover the rent in both Aberdeen and Kensington. So, they have decided to back an arrangement that allows MPs a fixed square footage of office in their constituency - fixed at 800 sq ft. Anything over that would need to be paid for by the MP. It could well be there will be some anxious MPs out there, who are leasing office space from their own political party (who own the building), because they might find, suddenly, that they will not be able to claim as much money as they used to and could be lumbered with a building they really cannot afford.

But the new arrangements also go further. For every member of staff that you decide to base in parliament, rather than your constituency, you will be allowed 100 sq ft less in the constituency. So, have two staff in Westminster and you can only have 600 sq ft in the constituency.

Will be interesting to see how this affects the way MPs operate their offices and support.

Technorati Tags: MP pay, MP expenses, MP allowances

A new sub-site of Conservativehome has started up. You can see details of it here.

CentreRight: About CentreRight

I am not a fan of the Euro - nor am I ever likely to be. I have always believed that a feeling of national sovereignty is linked to a national currency and I know many people in the Eurozone who still miss their own currency.

This story that they wish to now introduce a one Euro note to rival the US dollar is therefore somewhat amusing. If currency is not important to national identity then why would having a one euro note make a difference?

In passing, I recently noticed how much like the euro symbol the pound sign has become on the new £20 note - except, of course, it is a mirror image! Cynical plot or accident?

Technorati Tags: Euro, one Euro note

Feed Article | Business |

I don’t disagree with Nick Clegg on the issue of making the state smaller and getting it off peoples backs.

However, if he really believes that their should be parent-run schools then I wonder how many of those diminishing Lib Dem run Councils will be encouraging parents to run their schools. They do not need  change of law to do it - it is already available to them.

Like all Lib Dems their Council’s tend to say one thing and do another, now would be the time to take a different view, but will they.

So, all those parents out there; if you want a new school and your Lib Dem Council refuses to open one, then apply to open your own and see what the response from the council is.

BBC NEWS | Politics | State must back off, says Clegg

This is a quite extraordinary story and one which should concern all those who submit their sperm for IVF and for those whose birth certificates seek to put on birth certificates same sex couples as the biological parents.

I cannot conceive what it must be to discover that you are are child adopted close after birth. But not to know that you had other family members is equally concerning. This poor couple actually met later in life and married, only then discovering that the attraction they felt for each other was in part engendered by the fact they were twins.

Why is it important?

Because the Government is currently pushing through a bill that will allow same sex couples to both be put on birth certificates, effectively identifying one of them as the biological parent. The confusion that might flow from this is huge, especially as it appears that the Government does not seem to want to keep any records that might sort out the confusion later in life.

I am content that, where appropriate, same sex couples could well make suitable parents but I am concerned of the consequences, such as that reported here, of having a single, blanket, approach to handling this most difficult area.

Technorati Tags: Human embryology and tissues bill

Marriage of twins separated at birth is annulled - Independent Online Edition > Legal

You need to go in 2.45 minutes to hear what Hilary has to say about the ‘tear’ moment. Did it turn the election for her, I doubt it, but the pollsters have to blame something for getting it so very wrong.

The fact is that it beggars belief that Peter Hain could have forgotten to register more than 50% of his deputy leadership campaign donations - over £100,000.

I have never been a fan of Hain. He is poisonous and odious and represents the worst in partisan petty politics.

Time for him to go and spend a little time considering how much he has let people down with his sleazy antics.

Technorati Tags: Peter Hain, Labour Sleaze

Peter Hain: I used third party to accept £50,000 in undeclared donations - Times Online

Following the recent posting I made on Incapacity benefit there has now been the second announcmenet about doing something to relieve the problem of long-term unemployment and giving people more dignity in their attempts to find work.

The proposals include:

• Two year limit on jobseekers’ allowance
• Long-term jobless must do community work
• Back-to-work centres for persistent jobless
• Benefit cut for refusing three ‘reasonable’ job offers
• All incapacity benefit claimants reassessed

BBC NEWS | Politics | Tories plan ‘work for benefits’: