Adrian Sanders

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

Teenage pregnancies have again been in the news with Torbay identified as having the largest increase in numbers in the country.

There have been many comments and nearly everyone who has had something to say on this subject has been right.  The important point to recognise is that there is not one, or even a few factors behind these figures, but a combination of a wide range of issues.

Some of them are common to everywhere such as the way parts of the media portray sex, and how society in general tolerates the sexualisation children in advertising, fashion, film and TV, so these cannot explain why Torbay’s figures are so different.

None of the other factors are unique to Torbay either, it is just you will find them all here in one place.

So the reasons for Torbay’s high teenage pregnancy rate aren’t simply a lack of sex/relationship education, or access to contraception.  It isn’t just a divisive selective education system, nor is it a low general standard of education in some schools. 

The low further/higher education take up from Torbay is not a sole reason, nor is poor parenting or lack of individual responsibility. 

The poor local economy and lack of job prospects, economic deprivation, poor housing, lack of community facilities (things to do) do not of themselves cause the high figures, and neither does the prevalence of early alcohol/drug/smoking use. 

Young people in Torbay may be more likely to suffer from family breakdown given our high divorce figures, but this alone isn’t the cause anymore than our above average numbers of children in care.

It is all these things and more that lie behind these figures and if I could sum up in one word where the answer lays it is in ‘hope’.

Giving young people hope that there will be a good job with prospects at the end of their schooling; that there will be affordable housing available when they need it; that there will be choices and opportunities throughout their lives in Torbay and whatever barriers there are to aspiration will be removed by a positive, forward thinking, local council that values local people and local assets rather than viewing everything as a problem, and selling off anything that has any value for short-term gain.

There are some amazing people working in education, youth and health services across Torbay trying to tackle the tsunami of influences, difficulties and challenges young people growing up in Torbay face. 

Their task would be helped enormously if there was some evidence that we are building a strong sustainable economy that offers people employment choices and decent all year round pay.

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It really is the pot calling the kettle black for News International – the owners of the News of The World – to accuse MPs of innuendo and exaggeration!

That was Rupert Murdoch’s response to a select committee enquiry into Press Standards, Privacy and Libel that I was part of. 

The enquiry was about much more than phone hacking and other dishonest practices by one newspaper, for which two people were convicted and jailed.

Two thirds of our report looked at privacy and how to protect the right of individuals while enabling wrong doing to be exposed, and how our libel laws may be being misused by citizens of other countries, and how they could be reformed to prevent the powerful from bullying publishers not to print the truth.

Among our conclusions was a rejection of a privacy law, recommendations that the Press Complaints Commission should be more independent, have stronger powers, and work proactively when the subjects of a story – we used the example of the McCanns –  face a tirade of unsubstantiated comment and innuendo.  

We also made recommendations to protect free speech and reform libel law for which we received much praise from Fleet Street, but not from Wapping where the Murdoch empire resides.

In Peter Burden’s book, Fake Sheikhs & Royal Trappings, he quotes a former News Editor of the News of The World: “That is what we do – we go and destroy other people’s lives.”

Those of us who were critical of the paper during the conclusion to our enquiry were warned that our lives could come under very close scrutiny if we chose to publish our report without amendment.

If democratically elected representatives have to worry about how a paper might hit back at them for exposing their wrong doing it raises a fundamental question about who governs our country.  The people you elect, or a business built on innuendo, exaggeration and the destruction of some people’s lives.

Such fears did not stop us from stating what we found and now the ball is in the court of King Rupert to show that such practices have stopped for good. 

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Every child with disabilities now has the right to enjoy public play thanks to the life of Hayden Williams a young man with profound special needs who died at the young ago of 21 a few days ago.

The Paignton youngster was one of two local boys who were the inspiration for a Private Members Bill the Government accepted and put into guidance that all new play areas should be accessible to children with special needs.

Eventually all play grounds will have been updated and thanks to Hayden no child with disabilities will again sit on the sidelines watching other children play because the equipment had not been adapted to meet their needs.

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Having prayers before a Full Council meeting shouldn’t be a problem.  We have prayers everyday at the start of business.  Those MPs who don’t wish to take part enter the Commons chamber when prayers are over.  Can’t Councillors do the same?

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

I don’t know about Mayor Nick’s claim that we need friends in high places, but a former High Representative joined me last week on a visit to Kents Cavern.

Lord Paddy Ashdown, recent United Nations High Representative to Bosnia, was in town to look at some of the ideas around for regenerating the local economy.

Kents Cavern wants to become an International Centre of Excellence for the study of Stone Age man.  Such a centre would broaden Torbay's offer for Further and Higher education study to both domestic and overseas students, while maximising the economic benefits to Torbay of our UNESCO Global Geopark status. 

Paddy knows that tourism dependent economies need to broaden their offer and think more about hospitality and not just bucket and spade tourism.  This would include heritage, education and the creative industries that Torbay is well suited to host.

Like tiny green shoots breaking through after a long winter there are many examples of businesses and activities trying to adjust to new economic conditions.  They should be encouraged as much as possible, especially where ownership is held locally.

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The average bill for South West Water customers is £490 when the national average is £343. 

Adding £1.50 a year on everyone else’s water and sewerage bills to peg back our own to the national average is not a lot to ask.  In Devon and Cornwall we each pay more than £1.50 a year in taxes to maintain national assets such as art galleries, museums and national parks that we may never get to visit, so shouldn’t the rest of the country pay for our and their coast-line?

Following my successful push for a debate on the subject of our high water bills the Prime Minister has indicated he wishes to meet with me and other South West Lib Dem and Labour MPs who have been campaigning on this issue for a long time.

While this is a hopeful sign and it comes on top of the recent Anna Walker Review into water charges that singled out the South West as requiring special help, I remain a little cautious.  I remember raising this very issue with Tony Blair over a sandwich in the Drum Inn at Cockington during his first term as a Labour Prime Minister.  He didn’t get it so it will be interesting to see if Gordon Brown is any different.  

So despite my caution, the chance of actually getting something done about this 20 year gross injustice to the people of the South West has never been higher.

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Tony Blair’s evidence to the Chilcot enquiry was a reminder that the motion he placed before Parliament calling on the House to support the invasion of Iraq was only carried thanks to the support of Opposition MPs.  139 Labour MPs rebelled to join all 62 Liberal Democrats, some rebel Tories and a few others who would otherwise have won the vote and stopped the invasion.  Had we succeeded history would have been very different.

Now some of those MPs who voted for the illegal invasion, that has seen around 150,000 innocent lives lost and 2 million people displaced from their homes, are trying to rewrite that history.  They are saying the invasion was to remove Saddam Hussein from power when the motion before Parliament at the time said no such thing.

Others are claiming that they were fooled into voting for a war by the ‘evidence’ shown to them.  They overlook the fact that they had access to the same documents and briefings as those who were not persuaded by the ‘evidence’ and voted against the invasion.

Judgement is what this is about.  The judgement displayed by the party leaders, individual MPs and those who advise them. It is perhaps also about the judgement of the press when most of the newspapers enthusiastically backed Blair at the time.

Through the current hearings we seem to have revealed that truth was the first casualty of this war. I hope the conclusions of the enquiry will endorse the truth and help to ensure we never go to war on a false premise and against international law ever again.

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In the week that the Ipad was launched – the latest bit of interweb tech wizardry – I came across a website that really shows the value of new technology. 

At http://heatmap.egovtoolkit.co.uk/ you will find the reams and reams of data collected on local councils and their performance turned into easy to read graphics.  These show the good, the bad and the somewhere in-between performances of local councils in England and Wales across a range of services that they deliver.

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An urban myth doing the rounds is the one about British troops suffering greater losses than any other force in Afghanistan.  The Times recently published some statistics on casualties and the number of troops the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Poland, Netherlands, Turkey and Australia each have on the ground.

It is certainly true that those troops engaged in provinces that border Pakistan have suffered more deaths and casualties, and British troops are in such an area, but the figures show the country that has lost the most lives as a total of the number of troops deployed by a long way is Canada.  Canada has provided just over 3 per cent of the coalition forces but recorded over 8 per cent of the coalition losses.

The US, with around 5 times as many troops as the UK in theatre has suffered 5 times as many losses.

These silly myths that circulate without any statistical evidence to back them up do nothing to help our armed forces on the ground, and unnecessarily compound the worries of their families at home. 

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

Our country has some monumental challenges facing it.  Millions of our citizens are concerned about their and their families futures as we work out when and how to reduce the budget deficit.  Those who have suffered most economically are especially worried about their own immediate circumstances with unemployment rising and incomes falling.  Notwithstanding any of this, our hearts should go out to the people of Haiti whose country has been destroyed by the movement of two tectonic plates that no army, government or media baron could have stopped.

Whatever political differences that exist in our country over how we are going to get out of the economic, military, climatic and social messes we are in, I do hope none will say we cannot offer financial, technical and other support to the Haitian people at this time.  Charity may begin at home, but it doesn’t end there.

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The fall in the value of the pound against the euro has led to the UK experiencing a rise in the number of prescription drugs being exported to Europe under a process known as ‘parallel trading’ – buying medicines in countries like Greece and Spain where prices are cheaper and then reselling them for a higher price in countries like Denmark and the UK.

This has caused drug shortages in the NHS, sometimes preventing patients from accessing vital prescriptions for epilepsy, pain relief and many other conditions.

I have been raising this issue with Ministers over a period of time now and have uncovered that clear figures on the number of patients and drugs being affected by shortages are not available.

This is an unfair and potentially dangerous situation for us to find ourselves in and the Government is not doing enough to stop it.  It is the Department of Health’s responsibility to ensure the supply line of lifesaving drugs and they are falling short.

So far my communications with the Health Secretary about the impact of parallel trading and the drug shortages have only resulted in the same answer.  The Department of Health state they have no plan to study this problem in depth, but insist they are ‘monitoring’ the situation closely.

It really is a scandal that the Government is keeping vital information secret about the extent of this practice. 

In fact the Government has actually exempted the body that collates reports from pharmacists on what drugs are not available from the Freedom of Information Act, preventing the full picture from emerging. 

My perseverance with this issue is beginning to interest some national newspapers and if they can help expose this secrecy then all to the good.

I’m supporting the Live Music Bill that aims to make it easier for musicians to perform live by proposing a Licensing Act exemption for venues putting on music for 200 or less people.  The Bill would reinstate the two-in-the-bar rule, that would allow live entertainment without a licence.  This idea has the backing of the Musicians’ Union, Equity, the National Campaign for the Arts and UK Music.

Pubs don’t need a licence to show a live sporting event on TV, but under the Licensing Act need one for just about any other form of live entertainment.  Surely the Government doesn’t think people who listen to live music are more of a threat to public order than sports fans?
Small venues are vitally important to Britain’s creative culture.  Many of our most successful musicians got their first break playing live in pubs, cafes or student unions.  Sadly, the Government is denying this opportunity to young musicians today by making it costly and time-consuming for small venues to apply for a licence.  We risk suffocating our live music scene in red tape.
On December 31 2009, the Government announced a 3-month consultation on its own proposals to exempt venues with audiences of less than 100. But no specific exemption for schools, hospitals and colleges is proposed, nor would the ‘two-in-the-bar’ rule be re-instated.
The Government have moved slowly on this issue which suggests they are not serious about changing anything. The timing of the consultation means it will finish just before the election, with no opportunity to actually do anything. The only real chance to change the law is by supporting the Live Music Bill and I hope the Peers who are pushing it through the House of Lords will succeed, and the Commons will then rubber stamp it into law.

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I really don’t understand the opposition to making a charge on the bonuses paid to bankers, unless of course you work in the City and are looking forward to one.  These bonuses are a result of almost fail proof investments made with taxpayers’ money, or backed by a cannot lose Government guarantee.

When we borrow money from the banks they impose a charge on us in addition to the interest rate.  Isn’t it only right that we impose such a charge on the banks for the funds they have borrowed from our future taxes before they pay it out in bonus pay cheques to some of the already highest paid people in the country.

President Obama is taking on Wall Street and imposing such a charge in the US, so why can’t we do the same in the UK? 

Never in the history of City banking have so few been rewarded with so much by so many for doing so little.

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I overheard that the Government is so concerned about the heavy snowfalls recently that they are considering setting up a national regulatory body to oversee the gritting of all roads and pavements.  Rumours that such an agency would go under the name ‘Offpiste’, have not be denied.

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

May I wish all readers a very happy new decade.  Each New Year offers the prospect of change, but 2010 is the start of a new decade and a General Election year where real change is a serious possibility. 

All of the parties are floating ideas that may or may not end up in their manifestos when the time comes.  Viewed from South Devon much of the Westminster village debate doesn’t concern us, while many of the issues that matter most to us seem to go unmentioned.

Our part of the world is facing immense challenges that governments past and present have failed to meet.  The four pillars of the South West economy have been in various states of decline over the past three decades.  Tourism, fishing, agriculture and defence employ fewer people and generate less sustainable wealth than five, ten or thirty years ago. 

The invention of the jet engine and the development of the package holiday offers most people a bucket and spade vacation with guaranteed sunshine, often for less money, from a regional airport closer to their home than the English coast. 

Fewer fishermen and boats are required for the same sized haul as new technology has increased the catch to the point where some species of fish are near extinction. 

Modern farming techniques and global competition have increased yields while forcing the small family farmer out of business. 

The end of the Cold War and the reappraisal of Britain’s role in the world has already led to a reduction in the amount of defence related economic activity, even before Devonport loses its role housing Britain’s submarine fleet.

We need an economic plan for our part of the world that meets the challenges we face.  The far South West suffers from poor infrastructure.  To drive investment, create jobs and ultimately save money we need major investment in better transport links.

A priority has to be support for small local businesses who have been hit hard by the recession.  We have to target tax cuts to make sure locally owned businesses can thrive in our town centres, and elsewhere. 

As well as supporting our traditional industries, we must look at ways of diversifying into the creative industries, hi-tech manufacturing and other areas that can provide permanent high quality jobs.  

We also need a fairer society and this has to start with fairer taxes.  Too many people in our area struggle on low incomes so making the first £10,000 a person earns tax free should be a priority, and easily paid for by closing loopholes that allow the wealthy and large businesses to avoid tens of billions of pounds of tax every year. 

We need to end the unfair utility bills that emerged from privatisation.  Water and sewerage charges should be standardised across the UK.  We should seriously look at introducing mandatory social tariffs, smart meters and ending the prepayment premium for gas and electricity consumers. 

Our pensioners receive one of the least generous state pensions in Europe.   So a priority for the South West where such a high proportion of the population have retired should be to campaign to restore the link between earnings and pensions.  No elderly person should have an income below the poverty line.

The far South West has one of the largest gaps between income and house prices in the UK.  There is a lack of affordable homes and homelessness is becoming a greater problem.  We need new homes but it should be up to local people not Whitehall to decide where and how many are to be built.  We need to give councils the power and resources to invest in new social housing that is appropriate to local needs. 

Cutting VAT on renovation and brownfield development would help preserve Devon’s countryside and green spaces in urban areas. 

Scrapping the unfair council tax and replacing it with a system based on peoples’ ability to pay would leave more money in local peoples’ pockets and have a major positive effect on the far South West economy.  

I hope some of these ideas will end up in the final manifestos of the main parties so that the issues that affect us will be properly aired and the responses of the parties tested.  I shall certainly be arguing the case within my own party.

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I have always received a fair amount of correspondence about Torbay Council proposals but this last year saw more people than ever before put pen to paper, email or phone me, or turn up to one of my surgeries to share their fears.

The gist of what lies behind this is something quite simple:  Local people are not opposed to new ideas; they just want to be part of them. 

The people of the bay have much to offer the powers that be and don’t take kindly to so called consultation exercises where projects are simply presented and feedback ignored. 

They also don’t take kindly to being told they are standing in the way of progress when all they are trying to do is ensure that we don’t destroy something that’s good for the sake of investing a little more time and energy into making the best decision for all concerned.

Whether it is laziness or impatience on the part of the Mayor and his Cabinet to get things through I do not know.  I do know that the people at the top of this administration have increased the budget for press officers while other services face cuts. 

Just like the Mayoral Vision – drafted by consultants rather than consulted through the people – no number of column inches can substitute for public involvement.

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My 2009 annual report is now available; just contact my office for a copy.

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

Here we go again, another reorganisation of a government department that will save little or no taxpayer’s money, further reduce confidence in the public sector justifying the need for another reorganisation in the future, and in all probability leave the public with a worse service than before the external consultants recommended the changes.

The Government is proposing yet another ‘shake-up’ of Jobcentres and support for the unemployed.  It’s not that long since the last one and while I feel sorry for those who are out of work or facing redundancy, I also feel for the poor staff who want to help them but their political masters keep moving the goalposts. 

On the other hand it would be churlish not to acknowledge that this latest reorganisation at least indicates that the Government is recognising the terrible damage it did by closing hundreds of job centres, including Paignton’s, as Britain headed into recession.  But as these latest changes will have no impact whatsoever for at least a year, it does nothing for the millions who are looking for work now.

Ministers may trumpet an 800-strong new network, but the fact is they have closed more than 500 job centres in recent years. They will now have to reopen many of the centres they so short-sightedly closed.

We must focus on what we can do for Britain’s unemployed now, particularly young people without work.  What they need is tailored support as soon as they present themselves, not government press releases promising an improved service in 12 months time. 

The lesson from the recessions in the 1980s is that twelve months on the dole for a young person substantially increases the likelihood that they will spend the rest of their life on welfare rather than in work.

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And another here we go again as a campaign starts to dissuade the Ministry of Defence from cutting 24 hour helicopter coverage out of Chivenor in North Devon.

We’ve been here before having successfully campaigned to prevent the removal of a rescue helicopter stationed at Portland a few years ago.

Fishing interests are understandably concerned about this latest threat as lives could be put at risk.  So too could lives of the ever growing numbers of recreational seafarers from canoeists and rowers to yachting and luxury motor cruiser enthusiasts.

Whether for industry, trade or enjoyment, the people who enter the seas around our coast should have confidence that help will be available in the unlikely event of problems.  And when things go wrong at sea, time is of the essence.  Even the shortest time delay can cost dearly.

As part of the slow, painful and vital process of restoring public trust in Parliament and our democracy the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has been set up to oversee MPs expenses.  Last week Parliament was asked to approve its membership.

You would think that by now every MP would have got the message that the days when we thought we could determine our own pay and judge ourselves on our own behaviour were over.  But no.  On the night some MPs attempted to move an amendment to interfere with the membership of the board of IPSA.

In an effort to preserve both the independence of IPSA and the integrity of the independent public appointments process, some of us supported an obscure procedural device to ensure that MPs were not able to pick and choose the membership of IPSA's board.  Instead, the House was required to consider the full slate of names as the Act intended. 

MPs should not be picking and choosing the members of the authority in charge of MPs expenses. Nor should MPs be second-guessing a fair and open competitive selection process. We may have had to use an obscure procedure, but it kept Parliament honest.

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Freakonomics was the title of a book that sought to explain a number of unexpected economic consequences.  The authors answered questions such as which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their mums?  In every case conventional wisdom was turned upside down.

The concept might explain an unintended consequence of the recession and the movement of Eastern European workers back to their home countries.  This has been the near 10 per cent increase in exports of British food to Poland and other countries. 

What appears to have happened is that migrants got a taste for British staples such as baked beans, shortbreads and curry paste, and are now demanding them from shops from Warsaw to Bucharest! 

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My campaign for people to be able to contact the emergency services by text messaging has taken a step forward. 

A Royal National Institute for the Deaf (RNID) pilot scheme allowing people who are deaf, hard of hearing, and speech impaired to contact blue light emergency services by sending an SMS text message to 999 has begun.  The scheme will be of significant help to people who may have difficulties using a telephone to contact the emergency services.

I am still pressing communications companies to go further and introduce a permanent SMS service and have raised the matter with the telecommunications watchdog, OFCOM, who have the power and influence to speed up developments.

There are many circumstances where someone could endanger themselves communicating verbally with the emergency services, but where a text could alert the appropriate service and gain a response.

I have floated the suggestion to a number of mobile phone companies that if they could offer such a service many a parent would insist their child’s mobile was subscribed to it.

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

The UK banks owe their very existence to the British taxpayer with the Governor of the Bank of England estimating that they have received the equivalent of £1 trillion in taxpayer support.   That’s nearly £17,000 from each and every one of us.

But it doesn’t stop there. The banking industry is unique in having the taxpayer acting as a safety net. 

I’ve written before about the danger of a few giant banks that we cannot afford to see fail and why we need to split them up and share out the risks.  Well until the banks can be successfully broken up, they should pay for the explicit guarantee that they receive.

That’s why I’m backing the call to crate a new levy on bank profits at a rate of 10 per cent, with all the revenue raised (estimated next year to be around £2 billion) going towards tackling the structural deficit.  It’s not much given the scale of borrowing, but it’s better than cutting health or education spending.

The Government should use next month’s pre budget report to ask for a modest contribution towards paying off the deficit the banks were partly responsible for creating.  

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How difficult can it be to make a profit when just about everyone has to receive your services, and customers cannot take their business to another supplier.  There is only one thing worse than a public monopoly and that’s a private monopoly.

It really grates when the owners of South West Water expect praise for investing nearly £500,000 a day in water and sewerage undertakings, when at the same time they are declaring an underlying operating profit of nearly £300,000 a day. 

If they were still publicly owned they might deserve a pat on the back for investing nearly £800,000 a day, or for keeping charges down to affordable levels.  Fact is Governments past and present have allowed them free reign, while the customer has had no choice but to pay up whatever the company has demanded.

The water companies are a reminder that competition works, monopolies don’t.

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A Euro-sceptic friend asked me why I was in favour a referendum on UK membership of the EU when there is a chance the public will vote “no”.  

William Ewart Gladstone was the answer.   The grand old man summed up the differences between those of a liberal persuasion and others when he described Liberalism as trust of the people tempered by prudence, and Conservatism as mistrust of the people tempered by fear.

If you trust the people, you trust them to make the right decision, and their right to have a say on our membership of the EU is long overdue.

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Retired engineer Denis King writes often to this paper about the poor deal Torbay received under South West Water’s clean sweep programme.  Torbay’s scheme was  one of the last pieces in the clean-up jigsaw around the Devon and Cornwall coast and it fell far short of the original plans.

As Denis has rightly pointed out time and again had the more expensive (and expansive) tunnel scheme gone ahead it would have had the capacity to meet the extreme weather conditions that have occurred more frequently than originally predicted, protected our bathing waters from raw sewerage outfalls, and reduced the risk of flooding in Station Lane, Paignton, and elsewhere.

I don’t blame South West Water for this but the last Government that reduced the environmental standard that allowed the company to complete a scheme within the new rules.

I predicted at the time that the environmental standard would rise again and we could end up back at square one.    It is not quite that bad yet, our waters are generally cleaner than ever before – or at least since their quality was first tested.  The problem is that we have lost some of our blue flag beaches and with higher standards likely to be demanded there is a threat that we could lose some more.

I have always been of the view that no amount of raw sewerage outfall is acceptable so the highest standards should be demanded locally whatever the agreed standard nationally.

Whether Torbay ends up having to find 10,000 or 15,000 new homes by 2026 the pressure on our water, sewerage and drainage system will be greater than ever.  The risk of polluted seas and flooded homes will increase.

Burying our head in the sand – no pun intended – and trying to spin our way out of this, is not the response required from the local authority leadership. 

People like Denis King with their vast local knowledge and wealth of experience should not be dismissed because they ask difficult questions of the powers that be.  We should all be asking Torbay Council, South West Water, the Environment Agency and Government why they have allowed this to happen and what they propose to do about it. 

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The news that Torbay Council has declared war on rude cabbies reminded me of an opinionated taxi driver I had in the front of my cab recently.

He was not a fan of the Mayor.  “Public school pompous twit”, “Thinks everything’s a joke”, “always grinning at us out of the newspaper” were about his only repeatable statements.

I told him I knew the Mayor and had worked with him, and actually rather liked him.  Sadly, this didn’t shut him up.  Eventually we reached the House of Commons and I suggested he should try driving a cab in Torbay and see how Boris compares to our Mayor.

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

After the Sir Thomas Legg audit uncovered a number of over-claims by MPs and some over-payments by the accounts department - both of which should be repaid regardless of whose fault they were – he rejected pressure to widen his audit to look again at the flipping of second homes for financial advantage.

This means some MPs will be allowed to keep the often large sums of money they have made on the property market. 

It has also been revealed that some MPs standing down at the next election are withholding information from Sir Thomas in the hope they too will not have to pay anything back.

Yet some MPs are still complaining that the public don’t understand them.  According to the Daily Telegraph one Conservative MP has compared the treatment of politicians over their expense claims to the plight of Jews in Nazi Germany.  

Sir Christopher Kelly’s report came out in the middle of all this proposing to fundamentally change the flawed expenses system.  Then, Sir Ian Kennedy, the newly appointed £700 a day head of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, announced he had "no obligation" to accept the proposals!

Meanwhile in the Members’ Tea Room Sir Nicholas Winterton slapped a women MP’s backside while she was queuing for lunch, and another Tory grandee, Sir Nicholas Soames was reported to have acted like a pig in a trough. 

According to Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy “One was seen to waltz in, grab meat from the buffet with his bare hands, stuff it into his mouth and waltz off again. Another – slapped a shocked female Labour MP on her bottom.”

You really couldn’t make it up, and we have only been back a month since our long summer break away from Westminster.

It is incidents like these that have seriously damaged the reputation of Parliament and some fear it may never recover.  I really hope that isn’t true.  It is my view that when it can command public confidence our Parliamentary system is the best in the world.

With the challenges of market failure, climate change and the growing threat of a nuclear weapon exchange within an unstable Middle East and Indian sub-continent, our papers and news programmes should be full of debate and ideas on these issues.  Instead the whinging and whining of a small number of MPs fills the column inches.

Prevaricating over the recommendations Sir Christopher Kelly has proposed, or amending or delaying their implementation, is not going to restore the trust of the public.  In its absence forces not accountable to the people will exercise a disproportionate influence over decisions that affect our lives and possibly our futures.

Restoring confidence to our system of Government has to be the priority and if Kelly is asking individual Members to make sacrifices or forego benefits it is a very small price indeed compared to what is at stake.  We now need Sir Ian Kennedy to act and not hint he might reject Kelly’s proposals.

Most of those who put themselves forward for election do so for altruistic reasons, not for what they can earn from it.  It is those who seem obsessed with the remuneration available whose motives should be questioned.  I hope those MPs currently obsessing about proposed changes will now put a sock in it.

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The Lisbon Treaty has been ratified and a new set of rules to take account of an expanding European Union of 27 Member States will now be put in place.

A vote on a complex treaty was always going to present a Government with more problems than the simple principle of whether this country should be a member of the EU.  After all if people vote against a Treaty, which part of it does the Government seek to renegotiate with the 26 other Member States?   Twice now this has been the conundrum that Ireland has faced due to its constitutional requirement to hold referenda on Treaties. 

Many have voiced the opinion that had we had a vote on the Lisbon Treaty a no vote would have been a vote against the UK remaining in the EU.  If that is so why not have an honest “in” or “out” referendum in the first place?  I was pleased to hear UKIP Leader Nigel Farage come round to this point of view when he clarified in an interview that his Party now wants such a poll, and not one on Lisbon.

The Conservatives have also changed tack ditching David Cameron’s “Cast-iron guarantee” of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.  Perhaps they could now join the Lib Dems and UKIP in wanting a simple 'yes' or 'no' poll on our membership of the EU?

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Politicians are free to ignore advice, but to sack those who give it because it contradicts their opinion, that’s bad government.

The resignations of Government drug advisers following the sacking of Professor David Nutt, are damaging, not just in this instance but to the integrity of scientific advice across Government.

It is absurdly thin-skinned to suggest that a critical editorial in a peer-reviewed journal involves campaigning against Government policy.  If ministers behave like this, no self-respecting academic will want to advise them.

The most convincing recipe for bad policy-making is for politicians to insist on scientific advice that meets their prejudices rather than the facts.

If Churchill had taken that view when listening to his principle Scientific Officer, Lord Cherwell, we could have lost the war.  Scientists must be able to tell truth to power.

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

I stuck my head above the parapet last time and suggested all was not rosy in the economy at a time when green shoots were being claimed both locally and nationally. A week later it was confirmed that the economy far from showing signs of improvement is in fact still shrinking.

This is the biggest challenge facing Government and the risks of everything going belly up have never been greater.

Following the near collapse of the banking system 18 months ago our Government didn’t just allow the amalgamation of banks, they actively encouraged their merger. This has raised the stakes even higher as Government simply cannot now allow these giant financial institutions to fail. Consequently bankers are laughing all the way to…… well the bank.

Until Government takes steps to prevent a repeat of the banking collapse our economy is going to walk a knife edge.

Stocks and shares are gaining value in markets across the world as banks invest using money we the taxpayers have pumped into the system. It is unsustainable and another crash is as inevitable as the last. Yet these banks are rewarding their trading room staff with massive bonus payments! Shouldn’t we be taking some of this money back for the taxpayer?

The bonus pool in the banking system derives from the fact that the banks are making profits on the back of a taxpayer guarantee. Until a properly regulated structure can be established, banks should be paying the taxpayer a premium for this guarantee.

But the biggest challenge of all is the state of the labour market. With the legacy of unemployment likely to remain for years after the end of the recession, we need radical measures to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 1980s which left millions on the scrap heap.

Raising the age of retirement for many will simply mean an extra year on the dole before qualifying for a state pension unless we act now and start to match what needs to be done with the people looking for work. If we don’t, history will repeat itself.

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A late night stab attack in Torquay town centre, local landlords threatening to shut down their pubs in protest at an increase in violence against bar staff, and an editorial praising local magistrates for taking a tough line on drunken behaviour in the bay. These were the stories that jumped out of a Herald Express published on a Thursday in August 1975.

There were stories on domestic abuse, youth crime and work place theft, and articles on late night violence on the harbourside, credit card fraud and the blackmail and bullying of a 15 year old.

A fair proportion of the local news coverage in the paper was filled by reports from the local magistrates’ and Exeter Crown Courts.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the bay, and Torquay in particular, was riddled with crime and disorder on a scale unimaginable today, or perhaps it is just not so extensively reported nowadays.

Or is it possible that lawlessness was much more widespread back then, but we tend only to view the past through rose tinted glasses?

Nothing rose tinted about the entertainment on offer in our local theatres that week in 1975. The stars of Saturday night television were packing them in at the Princess and Festival Theatres, with the Val Doonican Show in Torquay and Ronnie Corbett with Kenneth McKellar in Paignton. For younger readers that would be like every night for the summer season Ant and Dec playing Torquay, while Armstrong and Miller perform in Paignton. I nearly said like Strictly’s Bruce Forsyth playing one of our local theatres, but he was probably playing the Babbacombe Theatre sometime that year! Another example of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

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There are some serious scientific brains working around the world on whether climate change is a consequence of human activity, or something way beyond our control.

Most of the world’s best brains have concluded that the climate is changing, that it is the result of human endeavour, and unless we take action our very survival as a species is under threat.

On the other side there are a number of vested interests against the changes that are being implemented, or proposed, to reduce our consumption of finite resources, or to tax pollution. The oil and gas industry, their bankers and financiers and everyone else who feeds off them who employ their own ‘experts’ to challenge studies and propagate doubt about some of the measures being undertaken.

Battle lines were revealed in the recent debate over the phasing out of incandescent light bulbs for low energy alternatives.

We know experts don’t always get things right and it is right to question their findings, but where the climate is concerned I think cautious acceptance has to be the right way forward.

If the climate change sceptics are right, the worst that can happen is that we slow down our economic growth. We may have to wait just a little longer to become a little more prosperous.

If on the other hand they are wrong, our ability to survive on this planet may be so short that a generation already born may be around to witness the death of our species.

In that context energy saving light bulbs are a small price to pay for a future.

Western Morning News Article

I do like David Pedrick-Friend the Labour Party Candidate for Torbay.  He reminds me of one of those Japanese soldiers, stuck on a Pacific Island, who for years after the surrender didn’t realise the Second World War had ended.

Similarly for David’s army, the games up and they will be surrendering office at the next election.  The battle now is between the progressive forces of the Liberal Democrats and David Cameron’s Conservative Party.

You can narrow the battle lines down to the completely different approaches of the shadow Chancellors, Vince Cable and George Osborne.

One of the main reasons we are in the economic mess we are in is because Gordon Brown when Chancellor ignored Vince Cable’s warnings about escalating borrowing. 

The main cause behind the depth and length of the recession in the UK was the failure of Alistair Darling to act when Vince Cable suggested intervention in the market. 

Why we have gone so far into debt and had to borrow so much is because Chancellor Darling delayed taking over the troubled banks that for weeks Vince Cable had been urging him to do.

Now the debate is about how we prevent market collapse in the future while paying off the trillions that had to be borrowed because the bankers got too greedy and the Government acted too late.

The contrast between Vince Cable and George Osborne is stark.  Cable wants to recreate the high street bank and mutual building society separate from the casino investment banks and fund managers.  Osborne does not.

Both know cuts will have to be made.  Vince says they should be made at the right time and slowly as economic conditions dictate.  George wants to slash spending immediately.

Vince wants to take people earning under £10,000 out of tax altogether by savagely cutting the tax loopholes the very wealthy enjoy.  George wants to cut inheritance tax for the wealthiest one per cent of the population.

If Vince is going to meet his pledge to protect front-line services such as in education and health, then the expensive ID card scheme will need to be scrapped and a new tax on million-pound homes may have to be levied.

For the Conservatives the pledge is to maintain health and international development spending only, while remaining silent about cuts, except to the staff canteen subsidy in Parliament.

Cable has proposals to ensure our armed forces are better paid and properly equipped paid for by cutting the number of pen pushers in the Ministry of Defence and by not replacing the expensive trident nuclear missile programme.

As the opinion polls and local council by-election results are beginning to show, the contrasting positions of the two opposition parties are forcing former Labour supporters to choose between them.

It won’t only be in seats like Torbay where Labour is out of the race at the next election.  Right across the country Vince Cable’s Liberal Democrats will be challenging George Osborne's Conservatives for the chance to fix the economy.

It’s time David Pedrick-Friend laid down his arms and took stock of the new political landscape.  I fear though he will keep on fighting until someone locates the island he inhabits and rescues him. 

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The other week I obtained figures showing that Torbay Council called in the bailiffs 10,780 times last year to collect arrears on council tax and other payments.

At a time when the Government is asking mortgage lenders to avoid repossessions the same ought to apply to councils, who should seek more sympathetic payment plans and make bailiffs a last resort. 

When the Government runs out of money, it can defer payments and borrow more.  The general public don’t have this luxury but in times of recession, public bodies should do more to be more lenient to hard pressed families.

It is not about writing off debts, but ensuring that they can be repaid with as much sympathy for the current economic climate.

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Recent Treasury figures have shown that up to 1.5 million families with children are entitled to child tax credit but don't get it, and up to 1.5 million working people are entitled to working tax credit but are missing out.

In each case the average amount unclaimed is in excess of £2,000 per year and in Torbay as many as 7,000 households could be affected.  That’s a whopping £14 million a year that could be ringing the tills of local shops and businesses.

You would assume that if it was 'free money' then people would claim it. But the system is so complicated that many people don't even know they are entitled. Others are put off by the daunting complexity of the forms, whilst others have claimed but had such a bad experience that they've given up. Particularly hard hit are those who are awarded money in good faith only to be told years later that the figures were wrong and they now owe thousands.

From my direct dealings, and in the experience of my office, Torbay Council’s staff are very good at alerting people to any support they may be missing - they will often go the extra mile to help people.  There are plenty of people out there to ask and who will help with applications.

All of those involved in giving advice in these matters agree that the system needs to be simplified so that people know where they stand.

People who provide all the information accurately and on time should not be the victims of failures with the HM Revenue and Customs systems and processes.

The tax credits system needs to be on the side of hard-working families, not making their lives a misery.

Fortnightly Herald Express Article

Delays to the proposed Kingskerswell by-pass are almost as regular as the delays faced by people travelling along the A380 to and from Torbay.

It’s important to remember that while Torbay stands to gain the most from an improved link with the rest of the country, the road itself is all but for a few yards within the Devon County and Teignbridge District Council boundaries, and the local MP is the one the people of Teignbridge elect. 

Torbay has never been wholly in control of its own destiny, but thanks to the two neighbouring councils and current Teignbridge MP we have never been closer to a construction start date.

The first and longest delay has to be from when the by-pass was first suggested in the 1950s to when it reached the top of the Highways Agency list for new roads in 1996.

The second was in 1996 when the A380 was de-trunked and the road was removed from the Highways Agency list and passed down to Devon County Council.

The third was a year later when the new Transport Minister Glenda Jackson MP announced a moratorium on road building until it could be proved that all other alternatives had been tried.

Devon County worked on the alternatives and in 2000 the scheme was top of the county’s list.  That year Torbay stopped sending Councillors to Exeter when it became a Unitary Council.  Consequently Devon’s County Councillors substituted the scheme for one in North Devon.

After much behind the scenes diplomacy by MPs and Councillors from across South Devon, the scheme made it back to the top of Devon’s list alongside Torbay’s, where it had never been anything other than the number one scheme.

In 2003 Richard Younger-Ross and I managed to get a timetable out of Devon County Council showing a start date in 2009 with completion in 2011.

Another year was lost following our local government reorganisation in 2005 together with a nationally imposed change to regional transport priority setting, and we are now looking at a start date in 2010 with completion in 2012. 

The only likely delay now, assuming the public enquiry into the compulsory purchase orders goes through, is a change of Treasury policy.  For the moment, at least until the General Election, the scheme is on track.

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It’s party conference time again and one of the policies my lot will be debating in Bournemouth is to make calls to all customer service numbers free, with the option of speaking to a real person rather than a computer.

The plan has been devised to change the balance of power between the public and the government, councils and big corporations by introducing a Universal Service code.

This code would put obligations on companies and organisations, including banks, power and water companies, that provide a service to the public.

The key measures include making one of the first options in their telephone response system the chance to speak to a human being.

These bodies would also be required to provide a free customer service phone number from both landlines and mobile phones.

There would also be a guarantee to arrange all service-related household visits, for example to fix a power supply or make a delivery within a one hour time window.

Staff should also be trained to deal quickly and effectively with customer enquiries, whether the call centre is based in the UK or somewhere abroad.

The code would apply to all public sector organisations – government departments, local councils, hospitals and others – while all organisations bidding for major contracts with or franchises from government would also be obliged to sign-up.

Now press three if you agree.

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During this Parliamentary recess the state of our town centres and how we revive them has come up at every meeting I’ve attended.

For the past three decades Government planning, tax and local government finance policies have encouraged out of town shopping. 

The matter is urgent as recent research from the Federation of Small Business claims between 50p and 70p of every pound spent locally goes back into the local economy, compared with just 5p spent in supermarkets.

It’s nearly a year since I suggested the council should spearhead a buy local campaign, suspend on-street car parking charges during the recession, and use discretionary powers to reschedule business rate payments for those in difficulty.

The funds and powers are there, but not yet it seems the will to act.

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Many good arguments have been made for cutting the cost of politics.  The Liberal Democrats have proposed reducing the number of MPs by 150 while the Conservatives are suggesting a 10 per cent cut, which would be 64 MPs.

However, I don’t think an auction between the parties as to who is going to cut the most MPs is actually that helpful.  What we ought to do is set out what sort of a democracy we want and allow the numbers needed to flow from that.

The Lib Dem figure would mean each MP representing around 100,000 electors and by coincidence that’s the number of electors in Torbay currently split across the Torbay and Totnes constituencies.  Torbay could once again be united as one constituency.

The Conservative policy would also have a coincidental impact.  Mr Cameron surely couldn’t have foreseen when he chose the 10 per cent figure that most of the seats that would disappear would be Labour rather than Conservative ones!

Supporters of all parties and none are beginning to realize that without a proper rule book such as a written constitution, a bill of rights, and a fair voting system, nothing is really going change.

I’ve made a short film about this and posted it on my websites.