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The Government challenged support sustainable communities
Tonight speaking at a rally to promote the Sustainable Communities Bill, Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell will challenge the Labour government to support it. The Bill, now in its Committee stage thanks to the support of opposition MPs, aims to give more power to local communities to counteract the influence of multi-national business and central government. It was originally introduced by Liberal Democrat MP Julia Goldsworthy in 2002, the bill has already been defeated once by the government.
Speaking at the rally Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell said :-
"This bill will put the interests of local people at the forefront of policy making. And it will put the heart back into local communities throughout this country. I am proud to support it. And I challenge Ruth Kelly and the Labour Government to do the same".
Creating a sustainable community is an essential ingredient to make a better society; where there is a greater sense of a shared community; where people respect and tolerate differences; where the only anti social behaviour is not helping your neighbour. Therefore it is also good today that a truly historic deal has been done in Northern Ireland, as devolved government is to return to Northern Ireland following an historic meeting between the leaders of the DUP and Sinn Fein. Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, sitting side by side for their first news conference in Stormont, confirmed that power-sharing would begin on 8 May.
Commenting on the Northern Ireland power sharing deal Liberal Democrat Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Lembit Öpik MP said:
"The people of Northern Ireland will be delighted to see that the DUP finally feels able to join a devolved, power-sharing executive. This historic decision is to be applauded. However, it's not at all clear why this won't happen for another six weeks. The government must now move to clarify what will happen until then, as only yesterday it claimed an executive must take over today."
This is the first step to creating a sustainable community devolving more power to the local people so they have more control over their own future. The problem in Northern Ireland has been to get the structure and voting system correct. There the failure to have the correct structure and voting system led to one community dominating the other and in the end led to conflict. To build a viable community everyone must feel that talking to the local authorities about their problems will help and that the local authority has the power to help. All too often people do not feel that and that is why turnout at local elections in the UK is so poor.
The system must change to devolve more power on local matters to local people and local authorities; the Sustainable Communities Bill is but a first part of that.
Local Works - campaign for the Sustainable Communities Bill
The Sustainable Communities Bill
Sir Ming Campbell - Challenges government to support the Sustainable Communities Bill
BBC report - NI deal struck in historic talks
Lembit Öpik MP - Liberal Democrats welcome historic Northern Ireland deal
Devil in the detail - Brown's budget hits Young Workers, Army Personnel and Charities
Brown's budget condemnation continues today with a study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies that exposes budget impact on young workers their analysis of Gordon Brown's latest budget published today, which shows that young workers earning else than £18,500 will be among those worst hit by the budgets effects, commenting on this Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said :-
"This shows the real impact of Brown's Budget. He is clobbering those on low pay who are often just starting out in the working life. It is totally unjustifiable to hit this group of people, who are already having difficulty coping with rising council tax, student loan repayments and who can't get on the housing ladder because property prices are so high. It is a slap in the face to all those young people who have studied hard and now can't make ends meet."
Also in further study of the detail by the Liberal Democrats reveals that Gordon Brown's budget means almost 70,000 Armed Forces personnel will see less money in their pay packets when the abolition of the 10p tax rate takes effect in 2008. Armed Forces personnel of private rank who get a starting salary of just £14,323 (effective from April 2007) will see an income tax hike from April 2008. Even the National Audit Office has released a report highlighting budget problems it has claimed significant number of UK service personnel could be living in poor quality accommodation for the next 20 years or more as says more than 40% of military homes are sub-standard with no final date for an upgrade.
Commenting on theses issues Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said :-
"This is a disgraceful way to reward our armed forces for the fighting they are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq on this government's behest. Offering a decent standard of living for soldiers and their families is the very least we should expect from the MoD. The government should be ashamed of the way the bravery of our soldiers is consistently rewarded with ministerial incompetence."
And finally it appears Gordon Brown's tax 'cuts' could cost charities £70m a year as Liberal Democrat Peer Matthew Oakeshott has revealed that Gordon Brown's enthusiasm to hit poorest in our society knows no bounds, as the cut in income tax announced in the Budget will lead to a big cut in the amount charities gain from gift aid donations. Lord Oakeshott said :-
"Gordon Brown has blown a £760m hole in the budgets of Britain's charities. They currently reclaim about £625m in tax relief in Gift Aid donations. This will fall by 11.4% next year when the standard rate of income tax falls to 20%. Oxfam alone will lose £1.8m a year. Yet again, when you read the small print, you see a Brown Budget hits those most in need."
Vince Cable MP - Younger workers clobbered by budget
BBC report - Poor forces housing 'for decades'
Nick Harvey MP - Brown's shabby deal for army privates
Nick Harvey MP - Government should be ashamed over army accommodation
Lord Oakeshott - Browns stealth tax rise will cost charities £70m a year
Thursday 22nd March 2007
Greenpeace criticise Brown over "faint-hearted" approach to environment
Today the condemnation of Gordon Brown's 11th budget continued with Greenpeace's director calling yesterday's Budget a "faint-hearted affair" for the environment despite what the Chancellor thought was a bold move in the Budget for car tax to almost double to £400 by April 2008 for drivers of the biggest and most polluting vehicles, Greenpeace's director John Sauven said :-
"The urgency of climate change requires bold measures and not timidity on cars and planes. No Budget which claims to be green can ignore the huge impact planes are set to make on the climate as New Labour feeds the growth of aviation."
The director of Greenpeace is exactly right, climate change has been a growing problem for the last 25 years at least, back in the early 1980's on my electrical certificate, diploma and degree courses we looked at the need to increase the use of renewable energy from both a sustainable viewpoint and the fact that oil sources would decrease and so other sources of energy were required. Now the need to switch is urgent after the Conservatives failed to do anything to tackle the problem in the 1980's/1990's and Labour for the last 10 years have also failed to take the bold measures necessary to address this problem.
This of course reflected exactly the comments made by Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne yesterday when he said:
"Gordon Brown has introduced more half-hearted half-measures on green taxes. The increases in VED are so small that they will encourage just a third of people to switch to environmentally friendly models. However, they will hit many people who already have cars and cannot easily change. The Liberal Democrat plan for a £2,000 duty on new purchases of gas-guzzlers would cause 72 per cent to choose a different vehicle and would hit only new car purchases, and not penalise people for old decisions. When the Chancellor has modestly raised green taxes, as he did again today, he gives them a bad name by failing to hand back the revenue in tax cuts elsewhere."
BBC report - Cars bear brunt of green taxation
Chris Huhne MP - Brown's budget another lost opportunity on environment
Budget 2007 - Brown announces Income Tax cut paid for by the poor
Today was Gordon Brown's 11th and probably final Budget. So what did he do well he announced a cut in basic rate of income tax by 2p to 20p from April 2008. But the chancellor also raised the lower rate up to 20p, which critics say means most people will not be better off. Overall, Mr Brown said the British economy was growing faster than all the other G7 economies and also claimed that interest rates will fall back to 2%. Other proposals in the Budget were:
A 2p cut in corporation tax to 28p from 30p.
This year's 2p fuel duty rise will be delayed for six months.
Beer and cider up 1p, wine 5p, spirits duty frozen, 11p on cigarettes.
An increase in road tax on highest-polluting vehicles up to £300 and £400
No stamp duty for carbon neutral homes under £500,000
Tax-free allowance for pensioners under 75 will rise in three stages from £7,280 to £9,770 in 2011. For over-75s, the tax free allowance will rise annually from £7,420 to by £10,000 by 2011.
More cash for schools and hospitals, public services, intelligence and counter-terrorism
A £6bn sale of the student loan book
So what do I think it was. Well :-
It was another wasted opportunity to simplify the tax & benefits system
It was another wasted opportunity to take steps to use the taxation system to reduce waste and improve the use of renewable technologies.
It was another wasted opportunity to devolve tax raising powers to local government.
The Chancellor has every year the opportunity to make the financial systems in this country work for the benefit of the people of this country and every year he has failed to deliver; so millions are tied up managing a ever more complex system of tax and benefits but to the benefit of no one; so the marketplace is not used to promote a sustainable future for us and our children; and so local people's concerns are overridden by the budget constraints that central government puts on local government.
This condemnation of the budget was echoed by leading figures in the Liberal Democrat Shadow cabinet :-
Leader Sir Ming Campbell said -
"The Chancellor had the chance to use this final budget to show that he was listening to the voices of the people of Britain. But he has delivered a budget of missed opportunities. He had the chance to create a greener Britain by taxing pollution - but he shunned it. The 2p cut in the basic rate is welcome, but let us be clear this is an income tax cut for the wealthy dressed up as a tax cut for the poor. While the Chancellor has taken some of the key headline policies from the Liberal Democrats, he has got the fundamental point wrong, we need tax cuts for the low and middle income earners now."
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary David Laws said -
"Today's announcement on occupational pension compensation is just more half-measures from a government which is having to be dragged kicking and screaming towards a fair solution. Furthermore, throwing ever more money at the failed tax credits system, is not the way to eradicate child poverty."
Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb -
"Despite enormous investment, productivity in the health service has gone down, while deficits are affecting an increasing number of NHS organisations."
Shadow Education Secretary Sarah Teather said -
"Gordon Brown has once again missed the opportunity to live up to Labour's promise of putting education first."
Shadow Environment Secretary Chris Huhne said -
"Gordon Brown has introduced more half-hearted half-measures on green taxes."
Shadow Constitutional Affairs Secretary Simon Hughes said -
"The Department for Constitutional Affairs will have a 3.5% real terms reduction. This Budget is not good news for those concerned about the pressures on the courts and the threats to access to justice."
So in a word was this a budget to promote fairness, make a more equal and just society, and create a sustainable future for all - NO.
Sir Ming Campbell MP - Chancellor abandons fairness to hit lowest paid
David Laws MP - Pension compensation is yet more half measures
David Laws MP - Budget will not eradicate child poverty
Norman Lamb MP - Investment in NHS has not stopped job losses
Sarah Teather MP - Brown's budget is a missed opportunity on education
Chris Huhne MP - Browns budget another lost opportunity on environment
Simon Hughes MP - Budget will not ease pressure on courts
Tuesday 20th March 2007
Liberal Democrats protect the vulnerable from benefit privatisation
The government was last night forced to back down on plans that could have given private contractors the power to cut benefits after Liberal Democrats raised concerns that without these changes, the Bill leaves possible the wholesale privatisation of the benefits system. A joint Liberal Democrat / Tory amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill ensures that any privatisation of the benefits system specifically excludes the powers to sanction an individual's benefits.
The tax and benefit system is not an area of government that should be opened to private competition. Private firms basically exist to make money for the shareholders and it should never be the aim of private firm to make money from the most vulnerable people in our society who are on benefit. Yet it took a Liberal Democrat / Tory amendment in the House of Lords of all places to stop this Labour Government who have really lost all touch with their roots.
Commenting on the victory in the House of Lords Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Spokesperson in the Lords Matthew Oakeshott said:
"Vulnerable people must be protected from private contractors cutting their benefits. Privatising these powers would be an unacceptable abdication of responsibility by the Government."
Lord Oakeshott - Lib Dems protect the vulnerable from benefit privatisation
Iraq Four Years on: Campbell warns Labour & Tories over Iran
Four years on from the invasion of Iraq, Sir Ming Campbell has warned the government and the Conservative Party against supporting any future military action against Iran and reiterated his demand for a full inquiry into the disastrous invasion of Iraq. In warning the other two main parties Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell said :-
"Four years on from the invasion of Iraq, the suffering of the Iraqi people demonstrates the devastating consequences of ill-thought out military action in violation of the UN and international law. Messrs Blair, Brown and Cameron must give a firm commitment today that they will not support or play any part in an attack on Iran. In place of military action we need to see a commitment to meaningful regional engagement from all parties including the US, allied to a tough and credible sanctions regime."
On the fourth anniversary of the day Labour and Conservative MPs voted for the invasion of Iraq, the Liberal Democrats released figures on the cost of the war both in terms of lives lost and resources:-
£5 billion has been spent by the UK on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the bill continues to rise
134 British soldiers have lost their lives and hundreds have been wounded or maimed
34,452 Iraqi civilians died in 2006 with at least an estimated 50,000 since the war began
One third of Iraqis are now living in poverty
Also today a new survey carried out in Iraq for the BBC suggests people are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the future and unhappy about their lives. Less than 40% of those polled said things were good in their lives, compared to 71% two years ago. And commenting on this BBC survey Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell said :-
"The war in Iraq was illegal. President Bush made the decisions, the Prime Minister argued the case, the Chancellor signed the cheques and the Tories voted it through. The Prime Minister should apologise to the country for taking us into an illegal war that has cost all sides dearly. Military action against Iraq has practically brought the country and people to its knees. It is now time to plan for an orderly withdrawal that should begin on 1st May and no British troops should remain after the end of October."
This 4th anniversary comes a week after former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix has accused Tony Blair of "exercising spin" in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war. Asked if Mr Blair had acted in bad faith, he said:
"I do think they exercised spin. They put exclamation marks instead of question marks. Both Bush and Blair lost a lot of confidence."
Commenting on Hans Blix statement Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell said :-
"These conclusions from Dr Blix, who was right at the very heart of these issues, are compelling. History will accept his judgement in preference to that of the Prime Minister and the President. The combination of illegality and spin has undermined the stability of an already precarious region."
It is now clear to me that President George W Bush wished to take military action in Iraq for his own political reasons. Tony Blair said to his mate George I will back you because either he did not wish to stand up to the America President; or thought wrongly he had influence to change things in US foreign policy by working with the America President rather than against him; or worst still he actually believed George Bush's neo-conservative foreign policies but whatever Tony Blair's reasons were he backed Bush. Then Blair said we should at least try and get UN backing for this first. They failed to get full UN backing and then went ahead anyway as they had planned to do.
The course of events is something which is clear to most people and should be admitted by Tony Blair while he is still is office if he waits until his memoirs are published the shame of the war will haunt British foreign policy for years to come and cause long term damage with many other countries.
BBC Report - Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis'
Metro report - Blix accuses PM of Iraq war 'spin'
Sir Ming Campbell MP - Campbell warns Government and Tories over Iran
Sir Ming Campbell MP - Prime Minister should apologise over Iraq
Sir Ming Campbell MP - Survey reveals failure of Iraq strategy
Sir Ming Campbell MP - History will accept Blix judgement
Liberal Democrat condemnation for British recycling ending up in Chinese landfill sites
New figures compiled by the Liberal Democrats show that there has been a massive growth in the amount of recycled material being sent to China from the UK since 1997. Reports suggest that many of these materials are ending up in illegal waste dumps, despite the fact that many of them include lead.
This highlights how thin Labour's commitment to the environment is talk and targets are no substitute for real policy action. There must of course be targets set to guide improvements however there also needs to be practical action. Central government must either change the local government framework to allow them to raise the finances through normal loans or provide central government finance to provide enough recycling plant and capacity in this country. This country does not even have the capacity recycle plastic bags the supermarkets use, which of course an environmentally friendly Chancellor could almost remove completely from the waste stream by use a plastic bag tax as they have done Ireland.
An increase in recycling capacity and a environmental reform of the tax system is what is required yet for ten long years this Labour government has done neither. Even after other countries like Germany with their "Grüner Punkt" system in 1991 or Ireland with their Plastic bag tax in 2002 have shown better ways to go this government refuses to tackle the waste stream problem with practical measures.
Commenting on these new figures Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary Chris Huhne said :-
"It is no good recycling more here if this simply ends up in a landfill site somewhere else. The government should set a target of zero waste for all municipal rubbish by 2020. This would mean more doorstep collection of dry recyclables and reforming the landfill tax into a broader waste tax."
BBC report - Irish bag tax hailed success
The German "Grüner Punkt" system
Chris Huhne MP - British recycling should not end up in Chinese landfill sites
Liberal Democrats force publication of Asylum Report
A highly critical official report into the Government's asylum dispersal policy has been published following a Freedom of Information request from the Liberal Democrats. The report revealed that ministers pressed ahead with a programme to disperse 50,000 asylum seekers across the country despite internal research admitting that some were being sent to "highly volatile" and "extremely dangerous" parts of Britain where police could not guarantee their protection. The report highlighted the problems and racial tensions created by the policy, which was implemented without prior planning, or consultation with other departments.
This report highlights what many people who have come into contact with the asylum system have known for ages that it is in many ways an inhumane and impractical system. One case which I know in Southampton involved a man from Rwanda who was housed in Southampton when his wife and four children arrived in the country they were housed in a flat at the top of a tower block in Glasgow and this despite the Southampton house been suitable for the whole family. The asylum system in this country has compounded the distress this person felt by :-
losing all his wealth including two houses;
been beaten by the authorities so he almost losing his life;
fleeing a country he loves so much he even stayed in throughout genocide of 1994 and would return to today if he did not fear for his life;
being a loving father and almost losing contact with his family who could have also been under threat after he fled the country;
The asylum system has compounded this distress by having a system which :-
has terrifying dawn raids families with young children;
fails to even understand the basic problems in Rwanda;
requires documented proof of Police beatings;
prisons whole families including children has young as 12 months old in Yarlswood Detention Centre even though they have broken no law
prevents people from working to help look after their own family and then punishes them for not working by paying them a level of benefit about half the level that is described as the minimum level required of a person living in the UK;
splits families up on a regular basis.
This government report quite rightly condemns the current asylum system which appears more intent on keeping the headline writers of the Daily Mail and Daily Express appeased rather than providing just and humane treatment for those who reach our shores having survived persecution in their home country.
Commenting on this report Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said:
"No wonder the Government buried this report. It is a devastating condemnation of its centrepiece asylum dispersal policy. Breaking up families and then dumping asylum seekers in sub-standard accommodation in some of our poorest communities was always bound to backfire. It was a policy that was neither humane nor practical."
The Guardian - Warning on shifting asylum seekers to dangerous areas is revealed
Nick Clegg MP - Buried asylum report a devastating condemnation of the government
Government to face International Investigation into BAE Inquiry
Britain's commitment to fighting bribery is to be investigated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The move is prompted by the UK's decision to drop a probe into defence firm BAE Systems.
The biggest problem in the third world today is poor governance. The problem of lack of clean water, lack of food, lack of good housing, lack of health care, lack of education and poor economic growth would all be greatly reduced or removed completed if all levels of government in the country work for the interests of the people first without corruption and self interest as the main reason for doing the job.
In Britain we must aid this process of reform stamping out any corruption involving British firms, even if it involves short term problems for UK firms. In the longer term properly functioning countries with well run governments and economies are far better for the financial health of Britain PLC than a series of dodgy deals.
Commenting on this OECD's announcement Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Vince Cable MP said:
"This news is particularly significant as it represents the views of other western governments, all of whom are trying to implement anti-bribery laws. These countries clearly believe their attempts to tackle bribery are being undermined by the refusal of the British government to pursue a prosecution."
BBC report - Fresh criticism over BAE inquiry
Vince Cable MP - BAE news reveals concerns of other governments
Nuclear Deterrent vote a poor decision ahead of its time
The Government's proposals for renewing Trident have passed through the House of Commons, despite 95 Labour MPs joining the Liberal Democrats in voting for the decision to be delayed. This was the biggest revolt since Iraq, but the motion got through because the Conservatives backed the government. Sir Ming Campbell challenged the Prime Minister over the decision during Prime Minister's Question Time, saying "a hasty decision to replace Trident is bound to undermine our ability to have influence at the [non-proliferation] conference in 2010 and shouldn't we not now be offering to reduce the number of warheads on Trident in order to give a lead to others?"
The wise voices on the subject of Trident renew came from the Liberal Democrat benches led very well by the Liberal Democrat leader and respected foreign affairs expert Sir Ming Campbell. He quite rightly pointed out that making the decision to renew trident prior to the scheduled multilateral disarmament talks 2010 review conference and before the system technically needed to be replaced was at best premature and at worst counter productive to the aim of removing nuclear arms from the world.
Commenting on the renewal of Trident vote, Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell said:
"It is a humiliation for the Prime Minister that he has been unable to take this through without the support of the Conservatives and with such a large rebellion from the Labour benches. It is indicative of the extent to which the Prime Minister's authority is draining away that he couldn't take his party united through the lobby""
Yesterday commenting on the possibility of the biggest Labour backbench rebellion since the Iraq war The Independent also concluded that it would leave Tony Blair facing the humiliation of relying on Tory support to win. Particularly as a poll for The Independent found only 49% of Labour MPs agree "the UK should continue to maintain a nuclear deterrent for the foreseeable future", with 39% disagreeing and 12% don't knows.
Commenting ahead of the vote on a possible replacement for Trident, Liberal Democrat Shadow Defence Secretary, Nick Harvey said:
"It is clear that the Prime Minister is going to have to rely on the Conservatives if this part of his increasingly tarnished legacy is to make it through the House. Making this decision now will prevent Britain from playing any constructive role in multilateral disarmament talks, particularly the 2010 review conference."
BBC report - Blair questions after rebellion
Independent report - Only half of Labour MPs back new Trident
Sir Ming Campbell MP - Humiliation for the Prime Minister
Nick Harvey MP - Parliament Trident vote premature
Liberal Democrat Policy - The Future of Britain's Nuclear Deterrent
Climate Change makes it to the top of the political agenda
Today the government has unveiled its draft Climate Change Bill, which plans to set a "legally binding" target to cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050. It also calls for investment in low-carbon fuels and technologies, "carbon budgets" to be set every five years and for ministers to give annual progress reports on cutting emissions. However it rejects proposals for annual targets to be set. The full Climate Change Bill is to be published in the autumn.
This Climate Change bill is a step in the right direction but only a small one it falls far short of the proposals already published Liberal Democrats, we would :-
give everyone a green income tax cut, of 2p in the pound, giving the average family an extra £1,000 a year in their pocket. (Liberal Democrats will also scrap the unfair Council Tax).
increase green taxes as a share of national income. (Green taxes have fallen from 3.6 per cent of GDP in 1999 to just 2.9 per cent of GDP in 2005). The more people switch their behaviour, the more of the tax cut they will save.
keep fuel duty in line with inflation to ensure there is always an incentive to save fuel.
abolish Airport Taxes, which tax each passenger, and instead we will tax each plane that takes off on its emissions. This would reward full flights and penalise half-empty ones.
raise Vehicle Excise Duty on the most polluting cars to £2000, and have lower bands to reward clean cars. The Chancellor has increased VED on high polluting vehicles by less than the cost of half a tank of fuel. If it is to be effective as a measure to reduce emissions and encourage greener transport, VED has to be radically redrawn to reward greener drivers.
provide help for rural drivers where cars are essential due to the lack of public transport, with an amendment to the Finance Bill introducing a 50 per cent discount on all but the top rate of VED for one car registered in such rural households.
reform the Climate Change Levy as a tax on carbon across the economy, so that the true cost of any bad impact on the environment is reflected in the price paid.
tighten allocations in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, and auction 10 per cent of the permits. The recent fall in the price of carbon for industrial users reflects the unambitious overall cap set by the EU.
The only main party with a comprehensive program of environmental legalisation are the Liberal Democrats and so commenting on the draft Climate Change Bill Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary, Chris Huhne said:
"The Bill is a step forward because we need a framework to sustain a decades-long march towards a non-fossil fuel economy, but it is too weak in failing to set annual targets. The overall target cut of 60 per cent of carbon dioxide by 2050 fails to take account of other greenhouse gases, and it is also at the unambitious end of what the science now suggests is necessary. Moreover targets must not become a substitute for serious proposals to cut carbon emissions. Sadly the government has been cutting the green taxes necessary to help shape our behaviour, while the Tories have failed to put forward a single firm proposal. Only the Liberal Democrats have suggested fairer, greener but not higher taxes."
The Conservative party complete with their new logo have also been setting out their vision of the way forward in tackling climate change. David Cameron is used a speech to a Conservative Party environment summit yesterday to call on the government to publish annual (not just long-term) targets for the reduction in carbon emissions, and to outline Conservative proposals for a tax on air travel. Also yesterday Gordon Brown, addressing a similar meeting in London, argued that it is essential to work through bodies such as the European Union to reach international agreements, and that the Conservatives' isolation there will undermine the chances of success were they to be in power. Sir Ming Campbell also met with representatives of leading environmental NGOs and said the Tories were "all targets and no teeth", and that the Liberal Democrats remain the only party to have put forward substantial proposals on the environment.
I must say strangely that all three are correct, annual targets are required and it is Liberal Democrat policy; full engagement with the European Union is also necessary and it is also Liberal Democrat policy; and substantial proposals on the environment are necessary as only the Liberal Democrats have. It is good that both Tory and Labour figures agree with Liberal Democrat policy it is a pity that their actions do not measure up so well.
Commenting on Conservative green tax plans, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable MP said:
"Liberal Democrats fully support the policy of taxing pollution in aviation and switching the revenue to tax cuts elsewhere. However, unlike the Liberal Democrats, the Tories have not committed themselves to saying how the tax will be applied - we say there should be a tax on the aircraft, not the passenger. They will not say how much they expect to raise, and they will not say what they expect to do with the revenue. If the Conservatives are expecting to be taken seriously they will have to be much more specific in the way the Liberal Democrats have been."
Also commenting on the government's draft Climate Change bill the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Nicol Stephen MSP has welcomed it as a "step in the right direction", highlighting that with Liberal Democrats in government, Scotland is already "well ahead of the rest of the UK when it comes to tackling climate change". If made First Minister, he has pledged to go even further and make Scotland "the renewable energy powerhouse of Europe", with plans for decentralised energy, micro-renewables, and a bold policy to provide 100% of electricity from renewable sources by 2050. Ross Finnie MSP has challenged Gordon Brown and David Cameron to follow Stephen's lead unfortunately a doubt they will.
The Independent - Chris Huhne: We must monitor carbon targets annually
BBC Report - 'Binding' carbon targets proposed
BBC Report - Homes must be greener, says Brown
Chris Huhne MP - Climate change bill is a step forward but remains flawed
Vince Cable MP - Tory green tax plans lack detail
Education policy appears takes two steps forward and one back
School Diplomas
The government's education policy appears to be taking to steps forward and one back. The announcements of foreign language education in primary schools and the a limited diploma scheme are both steps in the right direction however they may be backsliding after the Education Secretary Alan Johnson said in reply to questions at the Association of School and College Leaders conference:-
"Things could go horribly wrong, particularly as we are keeping A-levels and GCSEs."
"The decision was taken in the interests of diversity, so young people have choice."
"That does mean there is a danger of the Diplomas becoming if you like the secondary modern compared to the grammar."
Now reports in the Telegraph say the government is preparing to scrap its specialist diplomas designed to run alongside A-levels. Millions of pounds have already been spent planning the first five diplomas, due to be in schools by September next year. A leaked email from the government's curriculum advisers, however, shows they are running into trouble, with 61 important points still to be resolved. The scene was set for a climbdown on Friday when Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, told a conference of heads that the diplomas "could go horribly wrong".
The only reason that the diploma may have problems is because of the Governments lack of political will to follow the recommendations of the Tomlinson report and scrap both GCSEs and A Levels and replace them with a diploma. Now there great plan is to run the two schemes along side each other and create frankly a bit of a pigs ear of system that will no provide the clarity and breath of qualification that employers need. Kids do not fit neatly into academic or vocational boxes and a coherent education system should be able to cope with this natural diversity in all children. The current system does not and so children at the lower end of the academic scale get disenchanted with school and drop out of school with all the social problems that causes. The new system may help those pupils but force others into an entirely academic or vocational box with they do not fit.
The correct thing should be to follow the Tomlinson report and scrap both GCSEs and A Levels and replace them with a diploma encompassing both academic and vocation courses in one qualification.
Responding to Alan Johnson's remarks Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary, Sarah Teather said:
"It was pure cowardice that this government didn't scrap GCSEs and A levels and wholeheartedly pursue a modern British diploma combining the very best of academic and vocational learning. The government's policy continues to divide pupils into academic and vocational categories, refusing the possibility that a person might have interest and skills in both. It is not too late for them to correct that error."
Telegraph report - Work-related diplomas for sixth-formers to go
BBC report - Diplomas 'may go horribly wrong'
Sarah Teather MP - Not too late for Johnson to avoid divisions over diplomas
Modern foreign language lessons are to be compulsory for the first time in England's primary schools. Education Secretary Alan Johnson has endorsed the proposals of the Dearing Report, that all children should learn a language from the age of seven. However, there is no immediate move to reverse the 2004 decision to make languages optional beyond 14 - despite a sharp fall in the number of pupils taking the GCSEs.
This is a good step after the poor one to make languages optional beyond 14 which led to a sharp fall in the number of pupils taking a GCSE in a foreign language. However until both the quantity and quality of language education improves all the compulsion in the world will not help the numbers of foreign languages speakers to increase. This is the area that the government should really concentrate on to increase the numbers of graduates entering foreign language teaching with financial incentives and obviously we should also look aboard to recruit foreign language teachers.
We need as country to learn languages not just to have a better experience on holiday aboard but also to improve the ability of our many small and medium size enterprises to do business aboard.
Commenting on today's foreign language announcement Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary, Sarah Teather said:
"The government is right that the optimum time to introduce pupils to foreign languages is when they are young. But currently there simply aren't enough modern language graduates going into teaching. Even with any new recruitment drive it will take years to get the necessary workforce into our classrooms. Primary schools are already overloaded with subjects the Government says it is vital that they teach. Only when the Government frees teachers from the burdens of the overly prescriptive curriculum will they be able to fit in exciting new language lessons."
BBC report - Seven-year-olds to take languages
BBC report - Rethink on school language study
Sarah Teather MP - Lack of teachers will hold back primary school language
EU Leaders agree New Green Targets
European Union leaders have agreed to adopt a binding target on the use of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, officials say. UK PM Tony Blair said the deal was "a major step" which put the EU in a leadership position on climate change. There had been strong opposition from some countries to the proposal to boost renewable fuel use to 20% by 2020, however EU leaders agreed to both that and a target of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by the same year.
It is good that European leaders have agreed to this target. Yet it is only a step in the right direction now we must see real action to cut carbon emissions in recent years we have seen carbon dioxide emission increases undoing some the past gains, however we are still below the 1990 level, but this is only due to the 'dash for gas' in the 1990's when power stations were switched from coal power to natural gas. The real action on taxes, regulations and renewable energy is yet to start and until it does the problem of carbon emissions and the dangers climate change will continue to grow.
Responding to the agreement reached by EU leaders to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020, Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell said:
"This is a move in the right direction but Labour's record on the environment is appalling. Carbon dioxide emissions have increased and a new report shows that Britain is unlikely to meet its target to generate 10% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010. Summits and targets can only go so far. We need to see action from Tony Blair in areas such as green taxation."
BBC report - EU agrees renewable energy target
Sir Ming Campbell MP - We need more than summits and targets on the environment
MPs vote for elected Lords in historic vote
Last night MPs delivered a historic vote in favour of a wholly-elected House of Lords. The Commons voted by 337 to 224 in favour of a 100% elected Lords. The motion for an 80% elected house received a smaller majority of 38. While the vote is non-binding, Leader of the House Jack Straw has promised to uphold the decision. Any legislative changes would, however, need to gain approval from the current upper house first.
Electing the House of Lords is clearly the only way to remove both the unmerited power of hereditary peers and the appointed crony problem of life peers. However it should also be remembered that the aim of the House of Lords is to act as a revising chamber to the government elected as the result of a general election. Therefore a number of measures need to be put in place to ensure that the commons keeps its primacy :-
The new elected Lords should not be able to completely reject bills it should only be able the modify them, and a complete rewrite amending more than 75% of the bill would count as complete rejection and so would not be allowed.
The Parliament Act where by a Commons vote can be used to trump the Lords vote should be abolished and replaced by the power to delay the introduction of the bill for two years without the disliked Lord's amendments, but again only after a separate vote in the commons. This should apply to all legalisation apart from the annual finance bill (i.e. the budget bill), where the separate vote would cause the bill to be passed immediately. Not to exempt the finance bill could cause the running of the country to stop with all the serious consequences that could cause.
The Lords should be elected using a system of proportional voting, preferably Single Transferred Vote (STV) in multi-member constituencies. I would prefer it if these constituencies were the unitary authorities in Scotland and Wales plus the ceremonial counties in England i.e. Hampshire, Somerset, North Yorkshire, West Sussex, Greater London etc.
The Lords should be elected by thirds and be elected to serve a fixed 5 year term. This measure together with the STV voting system should ensure that the Members of the elected Lord's are not too beholden to the government of the day and so can do their job of revising and reviewing the legislation put forward by the Commons.
There is no need to limit the time of office for a member of the Lords, to do so you do limit the influence of the parties on individual members which may be seen as a good thing in a revising chamber but it would also limit the influence of the electorate on the Lords, which is precisely the that in having an elected upper chamber we wish to increase.
So I say in the 21st Century lets have both houses of Parliament democratically accountable. This of course means reform of the House of Commons as well, but I will that for another day.
Commenting on the House of Lords vote in the Commons Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ming Campbell said :-
"This is a truly historic occasion. After nearly a hundred years the House of Commons has at last taken the momentous step to reform the upper house and make it fit for a modern democracy. This is a famous victory for progressive opinion both in Parliament and in the country."
BBC Report - Straw 'means business' on Lords
Guardian report - Historic vote for all elected House of Lords
Ceremonial counties of England
Sir Ming Campbell MP - House of Lords vote a famous victory for progressive opinion
Poll confirms public support for local income tax
In a recent NOP poll of adults interviewed across England, 60% said they were in favour of replacing the current council tax with a local income tax. 59% said that basing the tax on eight property price bands was unfair. The poll is published two weeks ahead of the anticipated publication of the Lyons report on local government finance.
Any tax bill which is not based on the ability of the person to pay it is fundamentally unfair and when it is a large bill and one which who can only avoid by being homeless person living on the street than every effort should be made to make it fair. Council Tax, like the Poll Tax before it and Rates before that is fundamental an unfair tax as almost account taken of the person ability to pay it.
The only local taxation system that is based on a person's ability to pay it is a local income tax. The only local taxation system that would simply enable a transfer of budget control from central to local government by decreasing the national tax rate by the same percentage that the local tax rate is increased is income tax. The only local taxation system that would reduce administration costs is local income tax as the Inland Revenue is already there to collect it.
There is course move in local taxation policy for other forms of taxation like Land Value Tax, particularly for the taxation of businesses and second homes but the main local tax that the most people should pay should be a Local Income Tax.
The only main party that has Local Income Tax as the corner stone of its local taxation policy is the Liberal Democrats.
Commenting on the poll report Liberal Democrat Shadow Local Communities Secretary Andrew Stunell said:-
"Council tax is unfair and deeply regressive. It hits pensioners and single income households particularly hard. A locally set income tax, which charges people based on their ability to pay, would be fairer and more accountable. This result shows that the British public are clearly supportive of our proposal to abolish council tax and replace it with a fair locally set alternative."
BBC report - Council Tax unfair, poll suggests
Andrew Stunell MP - Poll confirms public support for local income tax
Green Industrial Revolution will need more than fine words
It is reported that Environment Secretary David Miliband will use a speech tonight in Cambridge to call for a Green Industrial Revolution. This is welcome news that the secretary of state recognises that to turn the economy round from a fossil fuel driven one to a green driven one will indeed require a Green Industrial Revolution.
However it will take more than fine words from him and past good speeches from the Prime Minister to realise this. It will require the government to change the market framework before the market will react and drive the necessary changes, in particular :-
Tax Changes - to make installation of renewable energy systems on homes and businesses financially advantageous with shorter payback periods and to make buying environmentally friendly options the cheapest option to do - as not all people are so driven by environmental concerns that they will be green if costs them money to do it
Regulatory Changes - to ensure new building developments meet the highest environmental standards and to ensure that those products which consume power run with the lowest possible power use. And higher power consumption product would of course receive higher tax levels.
Power Generation Changes - here the government must take the lead and start a large scale programme to build large renewable energy resources and a far greater use of microgeneration systems. The large scale systems are things like large offshore wind farms, tidal lagoons/barriers, hydro-electric schemes, large wave power systems, and tidal current schemes. The microgeneration systems are things like solar heating systems, solar photovoltaic systems, ground source heat pumps, micro wind turbines and river hydro electric schemes.
These changes will not take place unless there is a very strong government led change to the market. The regulatory changes cost the government only political will and the Power Generation Changes can be achieved by subsidy and straight forward government investment paid for by the tax changes and borrowing against the future income the large renewable generation schemes would make, plus cancelling all future build of new nuclear power stations.
The problem is, past Governments, this Government and the current 'Official Opposition', have had, and appear to presently have no clue of the scale and type of action that is required in order to have a 'Green Industrial Revolution', the only main party with the real policy action to back the fine words on environmental action are the Liberal Democrats.
Commenting on report that Labour's Environment Secretary David Miliband will call for a 'Green Industrial Revolution' Liberal Democrat Shadow Environment Secretary Chris Huhne said :-
"Unlike past examples of major technological change such as the replacement of steam with the petrol engine, the change we now need is more costly, and does not have direct personal benefits for consumers. That is why the missing element of David Miliband's vision is a strong government framework of green tax, regulation and subsidy to drive change forward. The green industrial revolution will not happen without a clear lead from the state, and occasional compulsion."
Chris Huhne MP - Green industrial revolution must be driven by the state
Delivery not tough talk on Welfare Reform is the key
Tony Blair has announced radical plans to get the 'long term unemployed' into work, at a launch of a new report into the welfare system today. The report, by former city banker David Freud, suggests that private firms and charities should take over from Jobcentre Plus in offering help to those who find it harder to get employed - including those with severe disabilities. He also suggests making single parents look for work once their child turns 12, rather than 16 as at present.
Ever since this Labour Government came to power in 1997 they have been talking about welfare reform and getting more people into work. All they have done is make the benefits harder and complex to claim. The danger is that this latest reform will just add to this problem and not help families on benefits back into the higher paid world of work.
The key to getting more parents into work is the provision of good childcare or childminding facilities. In particular enabling the parents to tie up school times and work times and help with childcare in the school holiday periods. All too often a single parent can not enter the world of work because the only jobs which give the same holiday time as schools are jobs in schools. However the system must also recognise that sometimes the best place for the parent is at home looked after the children.
Commenting this welfare reform announcement, Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, David Laws said:
"We have heard a lot of this before. The government will be judged on delivery and not just on more tough talk. We welcome the proposals to use the voluntary and private sector to help more people back into employment, but this must be properly financed, and include provisions to help those with serious problems such as low skills or mental health problems. We also welcome the proposals to bring the rules for lone parents more into line with those in other developed countries. But the government will have to ensure that there is proper childcare provision, and that there are safeguards for parents of children whose disabilities make working impossible."
BBC report - Blair targets long-term jobless
David Laws MP - Delivery, not tough talk, the test for welfare reform
Spring Conference Day 3 - Focus on housing
The final day of the conference with policy debates, internal party business and a key note speeches from Party President Simon Hughes and party Leader Sir Ming Campbell.
The policy debates were on; Green and Prosperous Communities paper - covered the few remaining areas of environmental not already covered by other policy papers, in particular enabling local communities to have greater control over their urban environment and stop the mass spread of identikit high streets; Sustainable Housing paper - called for massive improvement in the quality of the new houses to be built and an improvements to the existing housing stock; the other policy debate was an motion emergency debate on Iran which condemns any possible attack on Iran and called for a better diplomatic effort to be made to solve the current problems, particular as the current US sabre rattling is only strengthening the case of the hard elements within Iran.
For me the most interesting policy paper was on sustainable housing it called for :-
1. National targets to be set to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the UK's housing by at least 60% by 2050.
2. The Government to ensure effective compliance with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive before further action is taken against the UK by the European Court of Justice.
3. The thermal efficiency standards in the building regulations to be improved from 2011 so that any new house constructed after that date achieves a 'PassivHaus' standard.
4. The energy efficiency of existing homes to be improved through a set of standardised packages, including a range of insulation, draught-proofing, window, heating and lighting replacement.
5. Those schemes used to reduce fuel poverty to be targeted at increasing the energy efficiency of households in fuel poverty, thereby reducing carbon emissions permanently.
6. The Energy Efficiency Commitment on the utilities companies to be used to deliver year-on-year reductions in domestic carbon emissions, along with improvements in energy efficiency, and to change energy suppliers to energy service companies.
7. Improvements to the building regulations themselves to make them easier to understand and use, along with improvements in the enforcement regime to ensure new homes are built to the required standards.
These seven measures should greatly improve both the existing and new house stock in the country and lead the end of bight of old and disabled people living and dying on the cold, as well as reducing the fuel bills for all and not to mention reduce the carbon foot and reverse some of the worst effects of climate change.
Party President Simon Hughes MP confirmed that the Liberal Democrats are making significant strides in selecting women and ethnic minorities in key constituencies and he said that looking to add to the Party's record number 63 MPs, over half of the selected candidates in the next batch of 63 most winnable seats are either female or from an ethnic minority.
His speech followed the policy motion on Iran and was followed by internal party reports from the Federal Executive, Federal Finance and Administration Committee, and the Campaign for Gender Balance. Then came the remaining policy motions before the big set piece from Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell.
In his speech he laid down five tests by which Gordon Brown led Labour should be judged, and he said :-
"First, end Labour's authoritarian attack on civil liberties - Identity cards will not stop terrorism. They won't stop illegal immigration. They won't stop fraud. And they won't stop crime. Don't spend billions of pounds on an expensive, ineffective, and unworkable identity card scheme. Spend the money on our police and security services instead.
Second, grasp the challenge posed by climate change - The environmental efforts in the Chancellor's budgets have been risible. Make the green tax switch so that we tax pollution more and earnings less.
Third, break open the poverty trap - How can it be fair that over two and a half million pensioners live in poverty? How can it be fair that over one and a half million families are on waiting lists for social housing? And I want to ask Gordon Brown how can it be fair that in 21st century Britain six out ten children in Glasgow - the city where I was born - live in poverty? Give pensioners a proper income without the humiliation of the means test. Give families the opportunity for decent housing. Give our children a proper chance in life. End the dependency culture. Give people a hand up, not a hand out.
And my fourth test, trust the people - Since 1997 Labour has accumulated power, when it ought to have dispersed it. Take localism seriously and free local communities from the shackles of Whitehall. Scrap the unfair Council Tax which penalises pensioners and poorer families and hamstrings local communities.
And fifth, Britain's foreign policy should not be set in Washington - What do we know about Iraq? I'll tell you what we know. The President made the decisions, the Prime Minister argued the case, the Chancellor signed the cheques and the Tories voted it through. The British-American relationship needs to be rebalanced and sooner rather than later. There are ominous signs that some in the United States might consider military action against Iran. But strikes against Iran would buttress the regime, destabilise the region, and put British forces in Iraq at risk."
I see some headline writers see these five tests as five conditions for a possible coalition government after the next election. It is nothing of sort, it is simply there to highlight five key policies areas where only the Liberal Democrats have the policies, the political will and the political leadership to pass all five tests with flying colours. Both Labour and Tory alike will always fall short on at one of the above tests.
The Liberal Democrats have now set out clear policies on both environmental policy with the "Green Tax Switch" campaign and on crime with "We can cut crime" campaign. When are the conservative party going to have some detailed policies? They appear to wish to replace New Labour spin with nice photo opportunities. The government of this great country is too important to be left to inexperienced amateurs only the Liberal Democrats have the detail policy portfolio to tackle the needs of the nation.
Liberal Democrat Conference Day 3
Saturday 3rd March 2007
Spring Conference Day 2 - Trident and crime dominate
There were two themes today at the conference. The morning consisted of the normally mixture of set place speeches and presentation mixed with some policy motions to update the large portfolio of policies.
The speeches and presentations came from Phil Willis welcoming us the Harrogate again, the Welsh Liberal Democrats on what they doing for the people of Wales and by Dr Vince Cable MP, Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer who highlighted the way the government are mortgaging the future with poor financial decisions large government items like nuclear power and ID cards and the lack of effort on tackling the huge increase in personal debt.
The policy motions on some internal party reports and standing orders; 'Save Our Waterways' motion - highlighting government cuts and lack of initiative in with our great British waterway network; 'Water and Development' motion - highlight the chronic need to tackle water poverty and how in the future this could replace oil as a source of conflict; but the main debate of the morning session was dominated by the big debate on 'The Future of Britain's Nuclear Deterrent'.
The debate was good one with strong passionate speeches on both the main motion and the main amendment with leading figures from the party speaking on both sides. The turning point in the debate was Sir Ming Campbell speech in favour of the main motion. As it happened I was sitting directly behind Ming duration the debate and I could sense he really wished to enter the debate. His invention was crucial it wasn't just what he said but the manner and passion with which he spoke that was the vital ingredient to the speech. The result was the main motion was passed by a slim 40 odd vote majority in the nearly 900 votes cast.
The main points of the motion are :-
Retaining the current Trident system but cutting Britain's nuclear weapons by half, retaining only up to 100 warheads.
Extending the life span of the current Trident system and keeping options open on a final decision until at least 2014 in order to allow a clearer picture to develop with regard to nuclear proliferation and to threats to Britain.
Using the cut in warheads to kick-start multilateral disarmament talks and sending a strong signal to non-nuclear weapons states that Britain takes its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty seriously.
A presumption in favour of the most cost effective replacement for the current Trident system being a submarine system based on the Trident missile of 3 boats carrying no more than 24 warheads each.
This is the sensible way forward there is no sense in any government taking a decision on a replacement weapons system costing billions of pounds years before that decision has to be made. The risk of making the wrong decision and either leaving this country without adequate defence or wasting billions on an unnecessary system is too great to try and guess the country's defence needs is 2014.
The afternoon followed a similar pattern to the morning session with a speech from Michael Moore MP, Liberal Democrat Foreign Secretary and presentation from Liberal Democrat Group on South Somerset District Council. The Policy debates were on "Together We Can Cut Crime" the policy paper highlighted in the rally the evening before on Crime Prevention, Victims and Justice; the urgent issue of Gun Crime following the recent spate of shooting in London; and of course some internal party reports this time from the three Parliamentary groups the Commons, the Lords and the European parliament.
The very interesting part of the afternoon session was a Question and Answer Session on Crime, which was chaired by Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Nick Clegg MP and consisted of a panel containing :-
Lord Adebowale - who is Chief Executive, Turning Point a charity which helps over a 100,000 people a year turn their lives around from a point where they have a problem with alcohol, drugs, their mental health or a learning disability.
Lucie Russell - from an organisation called SmartJustice who campaigns for more alternatives to custody and promotes initiatives that are effective in changing offenders' behaviour, stopping crime before it starts and tackling the causes of crime for adults and young people.
Frank Flood and Gary Parker - both from the Social Partnership, who work with youngsters in Liverpool to stop them following the life of crime they have until a good treatment centre service turned their lives around.
For me the key thing was hearing the experiences of Frank and Gary they had both had a life of crime and drug addiction from primary school to only a few year ago. Both Frank, aged 45 and Frank aged 38 said the prison system in this country does not work to reform people. They should know as they had both spent many years in prison, in a number of sentences and visited most of Her Majesty's Prisons in the country. Their turning point came when one sentence included the final part in a treatment centre which looked at all their problems and helped them sort them out. The centre had people in it that saw them as people with problems that needed helping, rather than people who caused problems and needed dealing with.
The result of people helping Frank and Gary are two lives and two families that are now helping society by living in a productive and not destructive manner. The best sentences are those not those which are tough or soft but those which are effective.
The debate on the Trident Weapons System neither of the other main parties have debates like it at their party conferences. Key party figures on both sides of the debate and the party decided on the policy. Liberal Democrat by name and democratic by nature.
Turning Point - turning lives around
Lord Adebowale, Chief Executive of Turning Point
Smart Justice - unlocking solutions to crime
Friday 2nd March 2007
Spring Conference Day 1 - Liberal Democrats are the real alternative to Blair's crime-ridden Britain
Today was the first today of the Liberal Democrat spring conference. In the afternoon there were party member consultative sessions on possible future policy papers on the subjects of climate change, health, better governance, and local government structures and finance. In the evening there was the traditional start of conference rally which this year was on the current Liberal Democrat campaign "We Can Cut Crime".
There were good speeches from both Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ming Campbell and Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Nick Clegg which both highlighted the real mess the this Government and past governments have made of the criminal justice system since Labour came to power.
The only real way forward on a better criminal justice system are the plans published by the Liberal Democrats as part of the "We Can Cut Crime" campaign. The other two main parties continue to rant on with the same mixture of tough talk combined with ineffective action.
The key to tackling the crime problem is cutting the reoffending rate and that will not be done unless there is proper life and job skills training in prison. This combined with better action on drugs and alcohol plus a improved educational system will dramatically cut the rates of crime.
Sir Ming Campbell MP - Lib Dems are the alternative to Blair's crime-ridden Britain
Thursday 1st March 2007
Blair - Get serious with education and stop the gimmicks !!
The week a failed multi-million pound government scheme to encourage young people to stay in school is wound up, the Liberal Democrats have released research showing the number of the scheme's unclaimed points could 'buy' 28 million free AS study guides.
The Connexions scheme was launched to give 16-19 year olds an incentive to stay on at school by giving them "loyalty points" that could be exchanged for discounts on CDs, clothes and tickets for events. However 1.4 billion points have been accumulated but not spent.
This is another typical gimmicky government action to grab headlines, instead of making difficult decisions to fundamentally alter the examination system in schools so that it full engages all pupils and not just those interested in future degree courses.
After the age of 14 it should possible for all pupils to study the two basic subjects of Maths and English at the level most suited to the student, along side a range of other subjects such as building, plumbing, nursing, retailing, banking, hospitality, hairdressing and so on; as well as the more normal academic subjects like physics, chemistry, biology, history, art, music, geography etc. This would create a program of study which was individual, educational and interesting for the pupils. It would for bring vocational subjects on a par with academic ones and ensure that schools started to produce a complete range of young adults with the basic abilities to do the full range of jobs that society as a whole needs them to provide.
Such a change would require the government to complete re-think its current direction of education policy. It would require :-
smaller class sizes,
better equipped schools,
better trained teaching staff,
emphasis on improving all schools,
emphasis on neighbouring schools working together - possibly sharing specialised staff and/or facilities instead of competing against each in league tables as at present.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary, Sarah Teather said:
"It shows how utterly shambolic the Government has been at running this scheme if teenagers aren't even bothering to collect discounted computer games, yet alone free study guides. Young people have more sense than ministers - it's not bribes of go-karting lessons that keep pupils in schools, it's interesting lessons and the chance to gain qualifications that will help get them a job. The Government needs to spend a lot less time and money on gimmicks and a lot more on reducing class sizes, tackling bullying and improving the quality of teaching in the classroom."
BBC Report - Ministers scrap youth bonus card
Sarah Teather MP - Failed education 'clubcard' leaves 28 million study guides on the shelf
February 2007 - January 2007 - December 2006 - November 2006 - October 2006 - September 2006


The Final Conference on the School Safety Net Project will take place in Florence on 16 December 2014. The conference aims to present the results achieved by the project and the impact that the project deliverables had in the European countries involved. This event is addressed to teachers, head masters, students and policy makers. Conference is funded by LLP Programme and the participation is free of charge.
The strategies to solve the case scenarios are available on the project portal below each case scenario. Each strategy point out the correct behaviour of each protagonist of the case scenario.
Teachers from different countries are currently involved in the identification of strategies to solve the case scenarios. The strategies will be the result of a transnational cooperation based on an asynchronous exchange of opinions and on the participation in virtual meetings to agree on the final version of the strategy.
Teachers, headmasters, policy makers, students and parents were asked to assess the School Safety Net project. The testimonials are available on the project portal.
A collection of case scenarios on early school leaving is available on the project portal. All case scenarios have been developed on the basis of the real experiences described by the teachers involved in the project and adapting them in order to cover more exemplary and complex challenges that teachers should face at school.
Several educational web sites promoted the School Safety Net project through a dedicated link. The complete list of web sites promoting the School Safety Net Portal is available in the section dedicate links of the project web site.
The third partners meeting took place in Castelo Branco (PT) on 8 – 9 May 2014. During the meeting the partners presented the guidelines produced and to plan the production of the case scenarios and the related solutions.
Teachers participating in the School Safety Net project are currently posting their comments related to the experiences of their colleagues. If you want to participate in the discussion you can contact one of the partner of the project and join the activities.
The teachers' involved in the School Safety Net project shared their experiences in the prevention of early school leaving on the project portal. Teachers can take advantage of methodologies and strategies shared by their colleagues in order to prevent and tackle this phenomenon.
Guidelines for policy makers, headmasters, teachers, parents and students on the Students with Learning Difficulties are available on the Portal. Each guideline provide the user with different links to other resources in order to acquire useful skills and competences.
Guidelines for policy makers, headmasters, teachers, parents and students on the School Bullying Prevention are available on the Portal. Each guideline provide the user with different links to other resources in order to acquire useful skills and competences.
Guidelines for policy makers, headmasters, teachers, parents and students on the Integration of Immigrants Students are available on the Portal. Each guideline provide the user with different links to other resources in order to acquire useful skills and competences.
Guidelines for policy makers, headmasters, teachers, parents and students on the Identification of Students at Risk are available on the Portal. Each guideline provide the user with different links to other resources in order to acquire useful skills and competences.
The School Safety Net Project was presented in Florence during the award ceremony of the students who obtained their degree of qualification from the new regional system of vocational education and training. The School Safety Net Project has been reported as an initiative in the field of good teaching practices that contribute to innovate and optimize the schools' activities, especially vocational schools, which are working to help reduce early school leaving. More than 150 participants were involved in the event.
The second partners meeting took place in Seville (ES) on 3 – 4 October 2013. During the meeting the partners presented the success stories collected through the interviews with school directors, teachers, students and parents. During the meeting the strategy and methodology to develop the guidelines were discussed and approved.
The School Safety Net partnership is now reviewing training and educational sources for headmasters, teachers, students and parents in order provide them with skills and competences to prevent early school leaving due to integration of Immigrant students in the school environment, support to students with learning disabilities and prevention of school bullying.
Associated partners are joining the School Safety Net project. The members are organizations interested in the prevention of the phenomenon of early school leaving. The associated partners have the possibility to exchange of know-how and experience on this topic and develop contacts with other European experts in the field.
Rafael López Flores presented the School Safety Net project in Seville University on 27 – 29 May 2013. The event was attended by teachers, psychologists, pedagogues, psychologists and social educators. The project was presented and a special mention to conflict resolution as a significant element in the school coexistence was carried out.
The partnership indentified and reviewed more than 100 success stories related to the issue of early school leaving. The success stories present the perspectives of all the main actors involved in the early school leaving issue. These are: headmasters, teachers, students and parents.
The School Safety Net 1st Partners' Meeting took place in Florence, Italy, on 18 and 19 February 2013. During the meeting the project partners presented the schools involved in their countries, focusing the attention on the situation about early school leaving.
On 24 – 25 January 2013 the project promoter, attended the Leonardo Da Vinci, Grundtvig, Key Activity 4 projects' meeting organized by the EACEA in Brussels. The meeting was addressed to the coordinators of projects selected for Community funding in 2012. The two-day event has been designed to provide coordinators with detailed information on administrative, technical and financial aspects of the management of their projects and to facilitate networking among participants.


Looking out over an expansive garden with views, the Garden View Suite provides a private retreat in which it is easy to relax.
This suite features a quality King bed that splits into two singles with fine Italian linen, a comfortable armchair. There is an ensuite bathroom with under floor heating, double shower and bath.
For your comfort you will find bathrobes, bath slippers, luxury amenities, a hairdryer, an iron and iron board. WiFi and Sky TV are free and there is also in-room climate control, complimentary friandises, bottled water and fresh fruit.
This Suite offers a quality Superking bed with fine Italian linen. It has a sitting area with a comfortable armchair overlooking a magnificent view across the Heretaunga Plains and Ngaruroro river.
There is free Wifi, Sky TV, in-room climate control, a spacious walk-in wardrobe, an iron and ironboard.
Your private bathroom is beautifully tiled with under floor heating, featuring a double shower, bathrobes, bath slippers and luxury amenities. You will also find a hairdryer and complimentary friandises, bottled water and fresh fruit.
The Manse has a private chef and will tailor lunch or dinner to your requirements. The price of a 3-course dinner is $115 per person. A 4-course dinner is $130 per person. This is inclusive of GST. Booking is recommended.
For your obligations when booking a room, please see our terms and conditions.


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Warren Jeffs, Other FLDS Members Charged
July 23, 2008 by TFN
Quorum Report has posted Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's statement on the felony charges against six FLDS members — including imprisoned former head Warren Jeffs — handed down today:
Earlier today the Schleicher County Grand Jury issued seven indictments containing nine counts of sexual assault, bigamy, and related charges against six individuals who are associated with the YFZ compound near Eldorado.
The six suspects facing indictments include Warren Jeffs, who was charged with sexually assaulting a child, a first-degree felony. Four additional suspects were indicted for sexually assaulting young girls under the age of 17. Each of those suspects faces one felony count of sexual assault and one of the suspects faces an additional charge of bigamy. Another defendant has been charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.
The indictments issued today are part of an ongoing and continuing criminal investigation.
I want to thank the Texas Rangers who are the lead investigators in this case for their outstanding work. I want to thank the criminal investigators from my office who are actively involved in this criminal investigation. For months, dedicated men and women from our Cyber Crimes, Fugitive… Read More
Linguistics: Darwin and Lesbos
A couple of short notes on linguistics today:
The New York Times has an interesting column suggesting we drop the use of the words "Darwin," "Darwinism" and "Darwinian." The columnist believes using such words is "grossly misleading."
It suggests that Darwin was the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega, of evolutionary biology, and that the subject hasn't changed much in the 149 years since the publication of the "Origin."
He wasn't, and it has. Although several of his ideas — natural and sexual selection among them — remain cornerstones of modern evolutionary biology, the field as a whole has been transformed. If we were to go back in a time machine and fetch him to the present day, he'd find much of evolutionary biology unintelligible — at least until he'd had time to study genetics, statistics and computer science.
In a bit stranger news, a Greek court has ruled that gay rights organizations can still use the word "lesbian" in a case brought by residents of the island of Lesbos that sought to bar such.… Read More
Religious Right Seeks Control of Kansas SBOE
Blog, Religious Right Watch, Textbook Censorship
Oh, Kansas. Why must you share our suffering so?
As Texans with our own dysfunctional and often wacky State Board of Education, it's easy for us to sympathize with Kansans, who are facing elections to their own tenuously sane state board this year.
Unfortunately, Kansans won't have many of the moderates currently leading the board to re-elect, as they are stepping down — and far-right politicians and interest groups are ravenous to regain control by picking up the moderates' seats.
Out of the five seats up for election this year (the board is composed of ten members total), two races have candidates who are explicitly far to the right of the mainstream: Republicans Dennis Hedke, Alan Detrich and Robert Meissner (who's a dentist; what's with dentists on state boards of education?). Hedke is involved with the conservative Americans for Prosperity's tour touting "global warming alarmism." Meissner is . . . well, let's just let him speak for himself:
"As stated in the past, if the science community can come to a consensus as to the scientific credibility of alternative theories as to origin, then I would… Read More
John Hagee's 'Extreme Makeover' Attempt
Subscribers to TFN Daily News Clips (subscription is free) have been reading more about San Antonio mega-pastor John Hagee in recent months. Hagee has been an increasingly influential leader in the religous-right movement and in building evangelical support for Israel through his Christians United for Israel group. Then shortly after he endorsed Republican presidential candidate John McCain this spring, bloggers and other journalists publicized numerous anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic statements Hagee has made in the past. McCain hesitated, then rejected Hagee's support. Now, writes TIME magazine, Jewish groups who welcome support for Israel are also sorting through their relationship with Hagee.
Writer Frederck Clarkson takes a look at Hagee's "scramble to recover the mainsream legitimacy that he and his organization have so stunningly lost in recent months." The question is whether or not Hagee's attempt at an "extreme makeover" will work.… Read More
Fallout Over Bible Class Decision Will Come Later
Blog, Education
The Houston Chronicle has an excellent wrap up of last Friday's decision by the State Board of Education to adopt vague, very general guidelines for public school Bible classes in Texas. TFN Daily News Clips includes links to other stories about the state board's action. (Click here to subscribe to TFN Daily News Clips. News Clips offers a convenient digest of news articles and editorials involving religious freedom, civil liberties and public education.)
As we have reported, the state board refused to give local school districts specific curriculum standards that would guide them in developing legally appropriate and academically useful classes about the Bible's influence in history and literature. (For more background on the issue, click here.) The legal fallout from the board's decision will come later as local school districts struggle with how to develop these courses on their own.
The Texas Freedom Network Education Fund released a report in 2006 that details what already happens… Read More
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text:
PubFactory Integrates Hypothesis Annotation for Publishers
By heatherstaines|2020-03-22T16:33:22-07:006 Dec 2017|
Hypothesis annotation technology is now available to publishers hosted on the PubFactory platform, which houses more than 400,000 books and 1,400 journals. Enabling this standards-based interoperable tool brings collaboration to any content hosted on the web, a capability foreseen by early technology visionaries like Vannevar Bush and Marc Andreessen. Hypothesis supports scholars throughout the research life cycle, as well as educators assigning collaboration projects to their students, and working groups across market segments and disciplines.
Publishers have long sought a way to enable authors, editors, reviewers, and readers to have discussions directly on published versions of record. Integrating annotation on publishing platforms enables publishers to extend the services they provide to their users to include direct conversations and easy ways to add additional information to published content.
Annotation can also deliver valuable additional content, connecting published works to a wide variety of related resources in other locations. In this example from neuroscience, research resource identifiers (RRIDs) embedded in scholarly articles are surfaced after publication in annotations that link to dynamic records of other works referencing the same experimental components. This example shows annotations generated by SciBot, a robot backed up by human scholars to ensure accuracy.
Screenshot of SciBot annotations linked to RRIDs in an example article from eLife republished in PubMed Central.
PubFactory publishers using Hypothesis will now be able to present a branded annotation layer on their platform. Using Hypothesis, publishers can decide not only who can create annotations, but also who can read and/or reply to them. In addition, annotation group administrators can moderate discussions to provide an additional level of screening. Hypothesis can also be integrated with a publisher's existing user account system, enabling users to annotate without separate account creation or login.
José Fossi, Vice President of Client Services at PubFactory said: "Integrating with Hypothesis, we are continuing to grow our user engagement services for publishers, bringing them closer to their researcher base. This is an exciting time to add Hypothesis as a partner, as we launch hundreds of new journals and thousands of new books on PubFactory in Winter 2018."
Open annotation has fast become a central component of the research and publication workflow. Over the past two years, Hypothesis has seen dramatic growth in the number of annotations added to published works across the web.
Open annotations recorded by Hypothesis, Jan 2015 through Oct 2017.
"Having worked with the developers and technologists at Sheridan PubFactory on multiple projects throughout my career in publishing, I could not be happier to see this partnership move forward," notes Heather Staines, Director of Partnerships for Hypothesis. "We look forward to bringing annotation layers to more publishers as a result of the collaboration."
Annotation provides opportunities for engagement throughout the publication lifecycle. Researchers, scholars and publishers engage both before and after publication, while faculty and students are also annotating to center teaching and learning directly in publications and scholarly works.
Student annotations on the text of Herland by Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman.
Publishers wishing to learn more about integrating Hypothesis with PubFactory can register now for a free webinar on Wednesday, 24 Jan 2018 or contact Heather Staines at heather@hypothes.is.
Sheridan is a leading provider of print, publishing services, and technology solutions to publishers, associations, university presses, and catalogers. A division of CJK Group, Inc., Sheridan has five U.S.‐based production facilities; each location has a market specialty that supports scholarly journals, books, magazines, reprints, or catalogs. Sheridan is also the provider of the scholarly publishing platform, PubFactory.
About Hypothesis
Hypothesis is a mission-driven organization dedicated to the development and spread of open, standards-based annotation technologies and practices that enable anyone to annotate anywhere on the web. Our mission is to help people reason more effectively together through a shared, collaborative discussion layer over all knowledge. Hypothesis is based in San Francisco, CA, USA, with a worldwide team.
Hypothesis develops its open-source annotation software in collaboration with many contributors. We thank our funders, partners, and entire community for working with us to advance standards-based, interoperable annotation for all.
Media: Nate Angell, Director of Marketing
Twitter: @hypothes_is
Web: web.hypothes.is


This floor plan opens up to the galley style kitchen looking out into the spacious living room. There is a balcony attached to the living room, allowing you to have some outdoors space. The bathroom is across the hall from the bedroom. There is a linens closet in the hallway for extra storage. The bedroom has a large closet giving you plenty of storage space.


text:
Q: How do I jump back to the (old) instruction pointer if I edit the instruction pointer of a thread? I am attempting to edit the instruction pointer of a thread to get it to call some assembled x64 assembly before jumping back to the old instruction pointer and continue as per normal. The program that I am doing this to crashes after I resume the thread which I assume indicates that it isn't jumping back to the old instruction pointer.
Currently, I am trying the following
Get the the handle of the thread
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern IntPtr OpenThread(ThreadPrivileges dwDesiredAccess, bool bInheritHandle, IntPtr dwThreadId);

public enum ThreadPrivileges
{
    SuspendResume = 0x02,
    GetContext = 0x08,
    SetContext = 0x010,
    AllAccess = SuspendResume | GetContext | SetContext
}

var threadId = Process.GetProcessesByName(processName)[0].Threads[0].Id;

var threadHandle = OpenThread(ThreadPrivileges.AllAccess, false, (IntPtr)threadId);

Suspend the thread
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern void SuspendThread(IntPtr hThread);

SuspendThread(threadHandle);

Get the context of the thread
The structure of Context64 and ContextFlags can be found at this link
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool GetThreadContext(IntPtr hThread, ref Context64 lpContext);

var context = new Context64() { ContextFlags = ContextFlags.ContextFull };
GetThreadContext(threadHandle, ref context);

Attempt to write the old instruction pointer to the stack
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool WriteProcessMemory(IntPtr hProcess, IntPtr lpBaseAddress, byte[] lpBuffer, uint nSize, int lpNumberOfBytesWritten);

context.Rsp -= sizeof(ulong); // Allocate 8 bytes on the stack

WriteProcessMemory(processHandle, (IntPtr)context.Rsp, BitConverter.GetBytes(context.Rip), sizeof(ulong), 0);

Overwrite the instruction pointer
context.Rip = (ulong)myAssemblyPointer;

Set the thread context to the edited context
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern bool SetThreadContext(IntPtr hThread, ref Context64 lpContext);

SetThreadContext(threadHandle, ref context);

Finally resume the thread
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern void ResumeThread(IntPtr hThread);

ResumeThread(threadHandle);

I'm not sure if this has any relevance but the assembly I am using is the following
PUSHFQ
PUSH rax
PUSH rbx
PUSH rcx
PUSH rdx
PUSH r8
PUSH r9
PUSH r10
PUSH r11

sub RSP, 0x28
movabs RCX, 0x0000000000000000  ; Pointer 1
movabs RAX, 0x0000000000000000  ; Pointer 2
call RAX
add RSP, 0x28

POP r11
POP r10
POP r9
POP r8
POP rdx
POP rcx
POP rbx
POP rax
POPFQ

ret

I've tried to exclude as much code (error checking and cleaning up after) as I can to keep this post short but all of my error checking seem to indicate that the pinvoke methods are working as intended. My main concern is when I attempt to write the old instruction pointer to the stack. Whilst WriteProcessMemory doesn't fail, I have a feeling that I am doing this incorrectly. I would appreciate it if someone could explain to me whether I am writing the old instruction pointer to the stack correctly and if not, how I could accomplish it.
Please let me know if you want me to provide any additional information, for example, the processHandle or myAssemblyPointer variables.

A: Per the comments:
You are reading only 4 bytes, you need to read 8 because it's a x64 process and that is the size required for a memory address pointer.  A long is only 4 bytes, you need to use long long.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Amanda Falkner, who managed the Chevron in downtown Columbiana, was shot and killed by Shelby County Sheriff's Office deputies on Monday, Jan. 4, after she attempted to run over a deputy for an unknown reason, causing him to be airlifted to the hospital. The deputy has since been dismissed from the hospital. (Contributed)
Columbiana convenience store manager identified as woman shot by SCSO deputies
By Alec Etheredge
Published 12:52 pm Tuesday, January 5, 2021
By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor
COLUMBIANA – A domestic disturbance incident became deadly on Monday night, Jan. 4, after officers shot a Columbiana woman when she allegedly attempted to run over a Shelby County Sheriff's Office deputy.
Amanda Falkner, a 48-year-old from Columbiana, has been identified as the deceased woman and was pronounced dead on the scene after officers opened fire.
The deputy who was injured during the incident was airlifted to a Birmingham-area hospital with serious injuries and has since been released but has a long road to recovery ahead.
The incident occurred after officers were dispatched on a domestic disturbance call at the 1400 block of Mooney Road in Columbiana at approximately 5:36 p.m.
At some point, Falkner ended up in her car trying to leave the residence for an unclear reason, eventually leading to the tragic result.
"Any situation that involves the loss of life is tragic regardless of the circumstances," Shelby County Sheriff John Samaniego said.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected, including the family and friends who lost a loved one and all the deputies involved."
Falkner leaves behind one son, one daughter and three grandchildren in addition to other relatives.
She was also a manager at the Chevron in Columbiana located at 203 East College Street and previously worked at Beeswax Bait and Grocery in Columbiana.
During her time at Beeswax as a convenience store clerk, she helped authorities capture an escaped inmate in 2013. Falkner provided a car description and tag number after Shannon Loyd Crumpton came to the store following his escape from a work release program in Montgomery.
She had kept up with his escape and recognized him as soon as he exited his car at the convenience store. She locked the door and called the sheriff's office, which ultimately led to his arrest shortly after in Chelsea thanks to the description of the stolen car Falkner described.
The sheriff's office thanked Falkner for her tip and credited her for helping arrest Crumpton.
Now, there ae still questions surrounding the domestic incident on Monday, Jan. 4, and an investigation is underway by the Shelby County Major Crimes Task Force and the Shelby County District Attorney's Office. SCSO has handed over the full investigation to those parties.
By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor Just shy of two months from COVID-19 reaching its one-year anniversary in Alabama, the... read more


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I hope someone on this forum can help me! I've been a fan of CH from the start and I just started playing the bass. There seems to be many different bass tab versions/covers for Don't Dream It's Over on the internet. Can anyone help me with orginal studio version bass tabs for this song?
Hey! Send me an email to rhyslett@hotmail.com will send you my tab.
Interesting discovery - bass is tuned to E flat to play correctly!


text:
Q: QtRuby on Mac Os and ruby 1.9.2 i would really like to get down to some ruby programming with QT in Mac OS. I have tried lots of different things to install Qt on Mac os and develop there, but whatever i do does not seem to work. I've tried gems and even source, but i can't get it to work.
Has anyone created the same programming environment in Mac OS successfully ? If so, can you give some insight on how to set it up, maybe a good up-to date resource or something ? I can't find something that works.
P.S. I have a 64-bit core 2 duo processor.

A: There is a fork of the QtBindings gem which is hacked to build on OS X https://github.com/deadprogrammer/qtbindings