Today is the 11^th Anniversary of  the Newlabour

‘revolution’ It’s now very ironic to read the 1997 manifesto. The annotations are my comments.

 “Our long-term objective is a lower starting rate of income tax of ten pence in the pound. Reducing the high marginal rates at the bottom end of the earning scale - often 70 or 80 per cent - is not only fair but desirable to encourage employment.” And it’s just been abolished!

“We will reject the boom and bust policies which caused the collapse of the housing market.”Well, we’ve had the boom…..now for the bust!

“Public services and transport services in rural areas must not be allowed to deteriorate. The Conservatives have tried to privatise the Post Office. We opposed that, in favour of a public Post Office providing a comprehensive service.”A Post Office providing a comprehensive service….eh?

“Our system of government is centralised, inefficient and bureaucratic.”You said it! “We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons.”Really?

We’ve got no elections on Thursday in Littlehampton but there are in London and some other places and Gordy has helped destroy Labour’s representation even more than Bliar did last year. The 10pence tax thing has given the election away, soon there will be no one left in the Labour party. 

Interestingly, I have just played about with the Telegraph swingometer, and it helps proves how unfair the British electoral system is, I swung it to a LibDem victory and got a hung parliament.   

A LibDem popular vote of 50% gives 286 seats. Conservative pop vote of 32% gives 236 seats.

Labour popular vote of 18% gives 99 seats.

The others with 10% get 29 seats.   The Conservatives won a parliamentary majority with 39% of the pop vote and Labour won with 33% of pop vote.Give it a go http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?menuId=6770&menuItemId=10310&view=DISPLAYCONTENT&grid=A1&targetRule=1

When I heard that the government were thinking about using the minimum wage to deal with the abolition of the 10pence tax rate, I nearly choked on my cheese omelette!  

This government have absolutely no idea of empirical economics and the effect that their policies have on hardworking people. To ensure that all people on the minimum wage would no longer lose out from the 10p rate, the minimum wage would have to be increased for all people to £18,500 per year - or £9.49 per hour! That would leave thousands of people without jobs and hasten the death of British manufacturing.  

I have been involved in politics for fifteen years or so but I have never been so motivated to remove the government from office. The problem is though, that the British people will jump to the other end of the electoral see-saw and vote for the Tories and in fifteen years or so we’ll be back in the same situation again.

Only the good die young they say, John Peel and Robin Cook are testament to that but Gwyneth Dunwoody was what parliament and representatives should be about, holding the establishment to account and not being a part of it.  I am genuinely saddened by her death, I think Britain is the worst for her passing and we need people like her with grit now more than ever in the throwaway and superficial politics of modern Britain. I make one guarantee; that the people of Crewe and Nantwich will never have an MP in the future (whatever their party) who will stand-up as tirelessly as Gwyneth has done over the past 34 years.

The Bank of England made a quarter of a point interest rate cut on Thursday, but I think it’s a bit like the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dyke. The economy needs a correction after 13 years of boom. The question is; what has the government done to try and soften the landing for those likely to be worst hit? I remember delivering leaflets in the north beaumont in 1994/5 and seeing so many houses with the repossession notice on the window. I fear this could happen again.

My LibDem colleagues and I went walkabout in Littlehampton town centre on Saturday. People are really, really angry about this government. I have never seen the public this angry before, I mean people were fed-up with the Tories in 1994/5 but this is real fury. I can’t see Gordy coming back from this now, especially with the credit crunch that will turn into a recession. We met a couple of people on Saturday who wanted to join the party, so that’s good!

Well, I’ve seen the new designs for the British coinage and apart from the fact that Wales loses representation on our coins and the value isn’t written in figures for foreigners, I’m quite impressed BUT I thought it was government policy to join the Euro when the economic conditions were right. Well either that policy has been abandoned, we’ve just wasted a fortune on designing coins to be used for just a few years or Gordy doesn’t think we’re going to have the right economic conditions for the foreseeable future. 

I fear for Zimbabwe, I think even if a new president takes office the country is now so poor that the familiar culture of corruption and low-level civil war that we’ve seen all over Africa will befall Zimbabwe.

I was completely amazed to read that Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor (who was adopted) has traced his birth parents, and it turns out that his grandfather was the Liberal MP and chief whip in the 1930’s, Sir Percy Harris (who lost his seat in the 1945 general election). What are the chances of that eh?

Well where do I start? Firstly, the Littlehampton Gazette has three letters from Liberal Democrat councillors in it!

Today we have the first Arun District Council by-election since the local elections last year. The Labour party haven’t even put up a candidate. I think the current “first past the post” electoral system had its day in about 1920. Of course it must be remembered that multi-member wards are nothing new in local government so it’s time for STV to start in local government as it has in Scotland and Northern Ireland. I always remember a Tory politician in the mid-90’s say that asking the public to vote by ranking preferences was “far too confusing and complicated” Well if it’s good enough for the Irish and Scots it’s good enough for us, or are we too thick?  I urge all readers to visit the following sites;-  http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/deskbound/ 

www.mvcwestsussex.org.ukhttp://

www.electoral-reform.org.uk/

People quite often ask me whether I’m left or right wing, as a Liberal I find the question quite perplexing.I don’t think that modern politics is as easy as that! If I lived in the USA I would be regarded as a loony-lefty and if I lived in

France I would be considered an economic right-winger. We live in a globalised world now; the old certainties such as national sovereignty are no longer true.

 In the future it may be more important who you work for rather than the colour of your passport, however I still believe that local geographical communities will continue to be important especially for those left behind by globalisation.  Of course national politicians in this country from the two main parties don’t seem to be facing the realities of globalisation, or certainly the real effects of it, but I think we need to wake-up from our post-empire slumber and get real!