The Murdoch agenda

Chris Mullin wrote on 29 August 2009:

Edinburgh
Everyone is talking about last night's speech by James Murdoch...in which he launched a great broadside on the BBC and what he called 'state-sponsored journalism'...He also laid into the regulator, OFCOM, demanding outrageously that BSkyB be freed from the obligation to produce impartial news. One only has to look at Fox News to see where that will lead.'

Decline and Fall, p 369

The Murdoch agenda is now clear as day....

Swans

I don't often write or think about swans. But I could not help spotting a small flock of swans (if that is right collective noun) attempting to swim up the Wye.

In the opposite direction, however, was coming the Thaw: ice floes, like in some Arctic landscape, fast-moving (for this is the Wye in winter) and certainly quite sufficient to cause much difficulty to birds famed for their dignified surface appearance (coupled with vigorous underwater paddling).

The swans swiftly realised the odds were against them and got out and sat on the bank to watch the river do its business.

Getting things in perspective

If the national media were to be believed (or Labour-led NUS for that matter) the story of the Liberal Democrats over the past 8 months has been all about tuition fees and nothing else.

I would advise readers to have a look at the Party's achievements in Government so far (it runs to twelve pages).

Meanwhile, let's not forget that Labour were promising cuts deeper than Thatcher's (before they lost the election): Nick Robinson's blog is a good summary.

Merry Christmas!

ID cards scrapped this week - saving £835 million

The abolition of identity cards was confirmed on Tuesday, when the Identity Documents Bill was granted Royal Assent.

Liberal Democrats have consistently campaigned against ID cards, a scheme introduced by the previous Labour Government.

All existing ID cards will be cancelled within one month, and the National Identity Register, the database which contains the biographic and biometric fingerprint data of card holders, will be destroyed within two months.

The Identity Card Scheme and other biometrics work has already cost the taxpayer £292 million. The Act has saved £835 million in planned future investment.

Actually the Germans aren't any good at snow either

It is shocking to watch the queue snaking around St Pancras station as travellers wait for five hours to get on a train.

It is dismaying to watch Heathrow airport failing to cope with a winter snowfall.

And throughout the land we have watched cars being abandonned, lorries struggling to get through with deliveries and councils fail to cope with the snowfall - or even attempt to clear minor roads.

This proves that we are no longer a great nation and that everyone running the country - every politician, every official - is hopeless. After all, why, as someone asked on a radio show, is David Cameron not down at Heathrow personally helping to dig out the planes?

It is easy at this point to rant about people who can't drive, cars which can't manage snow, schools which close at the first sign of bother, councils which run out of grit. All this has been said and some of the criticism may even be fair.

But a cursory glance over the Channel rapidly dispels the myth that we are uniquely useless. Frankfurt airport closed for three hours because of an unexpectedly heavy snowfall (and Germany really is used to snow). Lufthansa has advised people to travel by rail. The Netherlands is also experiencing difficulties. Calais and northern France in general are a transport shambles. Sweden and Russia are also reported to be having problems.

Yes, it could be better. Yes, councils should have stockpiled grit after what happened in the past few years.

But at least we are not alone.

Does anyone come out of this well?

So: the Daily Telegraph continues its campaign to unseat Liberal Democrat ministers. It got David Laws. It nearly got Chris Huhne. And Vince Cable today began to totter.

Why are they doing this? Ultimately the Telegraph, like so much in what we used to call Fleet Street, is a political animal. It does not like Liberals. It does not really like Cameron either (Simon Heffer's detestation is famously visceral). If the Lib Dems in government can be destroyed then it hopes that Cameron will be forced to accommodate the Nasty Wing of the Tories and deliver true Conservatism.

It does not care about methods. It is dishonest - there is no other word for it - to use entrapment techniques. It is constitutionally outrageous to invade an MP's surgery - something which should be akin to the confessional or to a meeting between a citizen and his or her legal counsel.

But Vince Cable himself has not today had his finest hour. The first revelation - that he was prepared to bring down the government if the Tories become too trenchant - somewhat overestimated his influence within the Coalition. The more recent - that he was making war on the Murdoch empire - certainly reconnected him with his own Party and with sensible people throughout the land: there is much to fear from Murdoch, as anyone who has ever seen Fox News can testify.

Interestingly the Telegraph had apparently not been intending to publish the Murdoch bits, something which can be added with supreme irony to its charge sheet. The reason, presumably, is that they too fear the Murdoch empire (and wrote publicly to Vince Cable about the dangers). Their entrapment exercise had revealed an inconvenient truth - in the paper which has built much of its recent reputation denouncing parliamentarians for concealing the truth.

So if the Telegraph comes out of this poorly and Vince Cable foolishly, is there anyone who comes out well?

The Opposition? Labour sprang to the defence of Murdoch, in an onslaught thinly disguised as alarm about the regulatory process. Labour, of course, is still smarting from the fact that Murdoch ditched it before the last election. Clearly it hopes that by shouting hysterically about Vince Cable, it can get back in Murdoch's good books. It is refreshing to note that the Party which so recently left office under a cloud still lacks so much as a shred of principle.

In a way, some mild applause can be given to Cameron and Clegg: they dealt with the situation swiftly and made it perfectly clear that the Government heartily disapproved of Cable's comments on the BSkyB bid.

Should they have sacked him? Some would say yes: but there is still an economy to rescue, even if the Telegraph and Murdoch would try and persuade us that some foolish remarks are bigger news.

Extra Funding for Herefordshire’s Children

The Liberal Democrats in Government are delivering extra funding for Herefordshire’s schools through the “Pupil Premium”.  The Pupil Premium was one of the four key promises which the Liberal Democrats fought the 2010 General Election on and it is now being delivered in Government.

In its first year the programme will target £625m in extra education funding to the poorest children, with this figure rising to £2.5bn each year, by 2015. In the first year, every school is guaranteed an additional £430 from the Government for every child on free school meals and every looked-after child.

In Herefordshire this means just under £1.1million in additional funding for our schools.

Commenting, Hereford and South Herefordshire Constituency Chair, Chris White said: 'Herefordshire’s schools have long been some of the worst funded in the country, locally the Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to redress this.  The Pupil Premium will ensure that the least well off children in Herefordshire have a better start in life and will go onto achieve better GCSEs.'

Commenting, Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minster said: 'I first proposed the idea of a Pupil Premium a decade ago and I was delighted that it was one of four policies on the front of the Liberal Democrat manifesto at the last election. I am even more delighted that it is now becoming a reality.

'Despite the recent controversy, all the evidence shows that the best way to help bright kids from poor families get to university is to target additional resources at them when they are younger.'

Don’t leave our elderly at risk this Christmas

With temperatures set to plummet below freezing this Christmas, Liberal Democrat Group Leader Terry James urges relatives, friends and neighbours to check that the elderly and vulnerable are warm and safe this winter.

Commenting, Terry James said: “I have received distressing reports of elderly people in sheltered accommodation whose alarm systems are no longer working properly following the withdrawal of onsite wardens.  It seems that current system of roaming wardens has left dangerous gaps in the care system.  In one particular case a resident’s panic alarm had ceased to work properly as it was not being regularly tested.

“I hope that everyone with elderly friends, relatives and neighbours will make an extra effort in this harsh weather to check that their alarm systems are working.”

Letter from Sarah Teather: pupil premium means more than £600k for schools in Hereford and South Herefordshire

Today the government unveiled further details of the Pupil Premium – a key Liberal Democrat policy which will ensure the most disadvantaged children in our country get the help they need.

From April next year every school in England will get £430 for each child in their school on Free School Meals. Based on latest estimates this will mean at least an extra £605,870 for schools to spend on the students who need it most in Hereford & South Herefordshire.
Please let friends and parents know how the Pupil Premium will help children in Hereford & South Herefordshire.

Each year between now and 2015 the amount spent in your constituency will rise – by 2015 we will be spending a total of £2.5bn nationally on the pupil premium.   This is money on top of what is already being allocated for schoolchildren – no school will lose money as result of the Pupil Premium. And it will be given to Head Teachers to spend at their discretion on what they think works best for their school – be it extra one to one classes, breakfast clubs or after-school clubs.  

The Pupil Premium was one of four key front page manifesto commitments on which we fought the last General Election. Making it a reality will help improve the social mobility and life chances of hundreds of thousands of children from less privileged backgrounds over the coming years.   That is the real difference our party is making in government.

Best wishes,

Sarah Teather MP Minister of State, Department for Education

Tuition fees: not as a simple as it looks

Much has been written about tuition fees. Even more has been said.

A great deal of what we have been hearing is Labour Party spin: the NUS is led by Labour and many of the students protesting (including, sadly, those who popped up to condone violent street protest) are Labour supporters.

I would have voted against the increase in tuition fees, along with the many Lib Dem MPs who actually did so last week.

Below is an article by the former MP for Oxford, Evan Harris, which spells out his concerns with the policy. it also analyses why what we have now is considerably better than what was inherited from the previous government - despite the need for spending cuts.

http://socialliberal.net/2010/12/12/dr-evan-harris-writes-in-the-guardian-and-interviews-nick-clegg-regarding-tuition-fees

Too soon to tell

It has been suggested that somehow the new Labour leader has something in common with Liberal Democrat values. This is my response.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/8777825

Sarah Carr: thank you

Sarah Carr, who fought the 2010 general election for the Liberal Democrats, has announced that she will not be contesting the next election.

Speaking to the Hereford and South Herefordshire party’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 25 November that she said that she did not regret the experience and thanked all her supporters for their help and dedication.

New constituency chair Chris White said: ‘I had the good fortune to work with Sarah during the general election and her capacity for hard work was truly astonishing.

‘It is never easy for a new candidate to take over from an established and popular MP, and Sarah did remarkably well to come within 2,500 votes of holding the seat for the Liberal Democrats.’

Rail companies: can do better

It is not easy to get around a rural county but it can be even more difficult to get out (or back in).

The overcrowding on Hereford to Leominster trains is legendary: the trains are too short and too infrequent. Change we learn depends on the sympathy of the Welsh Assembly which subsidises Arriva.

Meanwhile, the trains from London are frequently (sometimes predictably) late: excuses vary from the usual non-excuse of 'late-running' to the mysterious 'poorly sighted (or was it 'sited'?) signals in the Malverns'.

Altogether we deserve better.

The Government rightly is prepared to invest in the county's broadband but needs also to look at our more traditional infrastructure problems.

Polytunnels in the dock

As court action once again challenges the council's approach to polytunnels, it is perhaps to time to consider carefully which way the county is going.

On the one hand there is our profoundly important agricultural heritage. Herefordshire is far more than a county of cider apples. Arable farming (especially potatoes), sheep and cattle are all significant, as of course in some areas is wine.

But there is also the issue of tourism. This is the country's fifth largest industry, up there with oil and gas, transport and (Lord help us) finance. For Herefordshrie it is significantly more important - and still has enormous potential.

But what attracts people to a county a fair step from London and Birmingham? It is not so much entertainment or even food (although there are some glorious restaurants and country pubs).

It is the scenery.

The Wye valley is arguably the finest river valley of its type in the UK - and therefore world class. If the valley and Herefordshire in general are blighted by industry (and that is what polytunnels are) then our key source of earnings and growth may be badly hampered.

You can laugh but....

The BBC's embarrassment yesterday at having interviewed an imposter was enjoyable. The corporation was able to laugh it off under cover of the other gaffes that day relating to a Cabinet minister's name.

But the imposter episode is actually rather serious. The so-called PPS's credentials must have been eminently checkable and - not to put too fine a point on it - Scottish MPs generally sound ..er Scottish.

It is difficult to dispose of the impression that the BBC will take any anti-Lib Dem story, from student protestors who are curiously kind to Labour over tuition fees (perhaps because they are Labour Party supporters campaigning in effect for their Party?), to repeating Labour claims that the Party's membership is somehow collapsing (it is up 8,000 over last year).

Sky of course are little better, quoting on Sunday the editor of 'The Liberal' magazine predicting the Party's imminent demise. He is not a Party voice. The Liberal is not the Party's voice. In fact 'The Liberal' seems to have disappeared without trace (I am owed a number of editions still).

It is common, of course, to complain about the media. But the media do give us weary politicos so much ammunition.

Perhaps be a bit less lazy, guys?

Doing his best

Paddy did his best this morning. But he rather overstated his case on tuition fees. It may well be the case that the parliamentary party voted unanimously for the Coalition agreement. But it isn't the case that the Special Conference supported it unanimously: some voted against (not many) and some spoke against (again not many).

The Coalition policy on higher education is better than the one inherited from Labour. It will help poorer students. But it is a long way from getting rid of tuition fees which is what we said we aspired to do in the Lib Dem manifesto.

So it can be expected that a number of Lib Dem MPs will vote against the package this week. And that is to remind us all that we may be in Coalition - but have to keep arguing the case for each and every manifesto commitment that we made.