Unfit To Govern

The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, appears to have problems with his figures?  He rushed the ‘Academies’ Bill through Parliament on the understanding that over 1000 schools were ready to apply to be academies. However it has now been revealed that only 153 have actually applied and probably won’t get the go ahead before the start of the new academic year in September.

So what was the rush? Was this just another blunder by Michael Gove or was it more sinister, as suggested by Shadow Home Secretary and Labour Leadership Candidate, Ed Balls. As reported in the Guardian Ed Balls is quoted as saying “It seems to me that the real reason for the rush was to avoid proper scrutiny for a deeply flawed piece of legislation”.

Further reading here: Guardian  Left Foot Forward  Paul Waugh

In the climate of swinging Tory cuts we learn today that accounts released by the Electoral Commission show that the Conservatives spent £37.1m in 2009 compared with Labour’s £24.7m, an additional spend of over £12m.

The most amazing thing about it is that the Conservatives still didn’t manage to secure an overall majority despite the huge spending.  Looks like poor value for money spent.

For the record the Liberal Democrats received an income of £6.4m and spent fractionally more – £6.6m.

The commission also said that The British National party and the Christian party failed to submit their accounts.

Read the full article in The Guardian

The Coalition continues to bulldoze ahead cutting here and there without considering the consequences of their actions.  I came across this interesting blog by George Monbiot of the Guardian.  It’s worth a read as he explains how scrapping the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) to save £3m is the definitive case of false economy.

George explains that the Commission’s latest (and last report) shows that even the modest measures that the previous government introduced to save energy and water and reduce waste have cut the state’s annual bills by £60m to £70m.  Furthermore that the Commission could have saved the public purse considerably more had it been allowed to continue.

He sums it up by writing “Scrapping the commission is stupid, irrational and counter-productive. It suggests that, for all its talk of listening and engaging, the new government can’t handle criticism and fears effective scrutiny”.

This looks like another blunder and once again causes me to ask ; “is our Government fit to govern?”.

Read George Monbiot’s whole blog post here.

Michael Gove is accused today of planning to let schools select pupils after a leaked government document questioned the future of the admissions code that stops schools favouring children they believe are more likely to produce better results.

See the full article from the Guardian here.

The BBC has reported that Lib Dem MP Tim Farron has attacked the 'toxic Tories'. He asserts that the reason David Cameron gave the Lib Dems such a good deal was "….first of all, we are providing some cover for them. The reality is that David Cameron has a toxic brand….His brand, including most of his MPs, are toxic."  He further said "Our identity is going to be potentially compromised if we are not careful."

This last point is so blindingly obvious.  Support for the Lib Dems is falling as reported in recent Polls. 

Tim Farron's comments is surely an indication that cracks in the support for the ConLib (ConDem?) coalition by the rank and file Lib Dem MPs are beginning to widen.  How long is it going to be before a significant group of Lib Dem MPs defies the Whip or defects to Labour? Nothing like this is going to happen until the Labour Party have got their leadership election out of the way in September. However, I predict that such an event will happen before the Xmas recess.

Read the full BBC News article here.

Politics UK [Paperback] by Bill Jones & Philip Norton
Paperback: 720 pages
Publisher: Longman; 7 edition (8 July 2010)

If you are interested in purchasing this book I would appreciate if you would click on the book displayed in our Books page.

Bill Jones is Professor and lecturer of Politics and History at Liverpool Hope University. He is the author of several well-known textbooks on British politics including the previous 6 editions of Politics UK, British Politics Today, and The Dictionary of British Politics. Philip Norton, Lord Norton of Louth, is Professor of Government and Director of the Centre for Legislative Studies at the University of Hull, as well as being a member of the House of Lords.  He is the author or editor of 28 books.

Politics UK  is an introduction to British politics, providing a thorough and accessible overview of the institutions and processes of British government, a good grounding in British political history, and an incisive introduction to the issues facing Britain today. With contributed chapters from respected scholars in the field and short essays on real-world politics from well-known political commentators (description provided by amazon.co.uk). This is a significant update to this book which was last published in 2006. New to this edition;

• A full new chapter covering the 2010 general election  – campaigns, contexts, and outcomes
• new chapter on 'Britain and the World'
• coverage of the banking crisis in Britain, the MPs expenses scandal and the Iraq Inquiry

Yesterday, during Prime Ministers Question Time (PMQ) the deputy PM, Nick Clegg, made a blunder when he accused Jack Straw of being involved in the decision to take Britain into an ‘illegal’ war against Iraq.  Whilst it’s well known that Nick Clegg holds this personal belief it’s another matter if stated while representing the Government in answering a question at the despatch box during PMQ. This outburst came when, clearly Clegg had become agitated at Jack Straw’s questions relating to anomalies in the reasoning for withdrawing the promise of a loan to Forgemasters in Leeds.

To quote from the Guardian; “Philippe Sands, professor of law at University College London, said: ‘A public statement by a government minister in parliament as to the legal situation would be a statement that an international court would be interested in, in forming a view as to whether or not the war was lawful.’”

Clegg’s view is clearly at odds with the Conservative party who backed the then Labour government’s decision to commit troops to Iraq in 2003 (albeit as we now know, there were no weapons of mass destruction which were believed to exist at the time).

How it’s been reported elsewhere; Guardian, BBC, Independent, Sky News, Kiran Stacey FT Blog

Born: 20 Feb, 1951 in Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland (James Gordon Brown)
Father: John Ebenezer Brown, minister of the Church of Scotland (died 1998)
Mother: Jessie Elizabeth Souter, known as Bunty, daughter of a Timber Merchant (died 2004)
School: Kirkcaldy High School
Graduated: from Edinburgh University with First Class Honours MA in 1972

The young Gordon was brought up in the Manse in Kirkaldy, the largest town in Fife, Scotland across the river Forth from Edinburgh. After taking part in an experimental ‘fast track’ education program he entered Edinburgh University at the young age of 16. During an end-of-term school rugby union he received a kick to the head and suffered a retinal detachment. This has left him blind in his left eye.

After graduating with a 1st class honours MA in 1972 he stayed on to complete his PhD (which he gained ten years later in 1982), titled The Labour Party and Political Change in Scotland 1918–29.  From 1976 to 1980 Brown was employed as a lecturer in Politics at Glasgow College of Technology.

1n 1979 he stood for Parliament but lost to a Conservative, Michael Ancram. He was elected to Parliament on his second attempt as a Labour MP for Dunfermline East in 1983. The Conservatives were in power. His first Westminster office mate was a newly elected MP from the Sedgefield constituency called Tony Blair.

He remained an opposition Labour MP for over 10 years until the landslide labour victory in 1997 when Tony Blair became Prime Minister.  (It has long been rumoured that a deal was struck between Blair and Brown at a restaurant in Islington, in which Blair promised to give Brown control of economic policy in return for Brown not standing against him in the leadership election which took place prior to the General Election).

He was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. He immediately made his mark by giving the Bank of England operational independence in monetary policy, and responsibility for setting interest rates through the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee. He also transferred banking supervision responsibility to the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Brown’s ten years and two months as Chancellor of the Exchequer made him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history.

At the age of 49, Brown married Sarah Macaulay in a private ceremony at his home in North Queensferry, Fife, on 3 August 2000. The Browns have 2 children, John & James. James has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Unfortunately a 3rd child, Jennifer Jane, was born prematurely and died in 2002

When Blair announced in September 2006 that he would step down within a year Brown was the clear favourite to succeed him.  Brown finally became the Prime Minister on 27 June 2007.

Brown’s premiership coincided with the global recession, during which the United Kingdom led calls for fiscal action to stimulate aggregate demand. Domestically, Brown’s administration introduced a range of measures including a bank rescue package worth around £500 billion (approximately $850 billion), a temporary 2.5% cut in Value Added Tax (Sales Tax) and a “car scrappage” scheme.

In April 2009, Brown gave what was the first ever speech by a serving Prime Minister at St Paul’s Cathedral in London. Brown remained Prime Minister until Labour’s defeat in the May 2010 election after which he resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown confirmed he intends to stay on in Parliament, serving as a Labour Backbencher, in order to serve the people of his Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency.

This profile is an extract of the entry for Gordon Brown on Wikipedia.

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Guardian – Budget risks return to recession, warns Treasury select committee

Telegraph – ‘Budget increase risk of double-dip recession’

Mail – George Osborne ‘has raised risk of double-dip’ with emergency budget

Independent – Budget tax changes ‘to cost some families £1,000

Independent – Reality of the ‘Big Society’ dawns on Liverpool

Mirror –  A Big Society? Yer on yer own, David Cameron

FT – Poorest to ‘fare less well’ from Budget (free subscription to FT required to view)

David Cameron once again tried to explain his "Big Society" concept in a speech in Liverpool.  He describes the idea of empowering communities, as his "great passion".

OK, so what's behind this concept that no one but himself pretends to understand.  The way I read it is that he is hoping that people will give their time free to take over from services currently provided by charities and local councils, both of which are going have their budgets so severely cut that they can no longer provide these services.  Fundamentally if people are doing these things free you don't need to pay people to do them.

To take just one example; the idea that you form a committe to run a local post office is preposperous.  People just want the basics; a job which brings in sufficient money to pay the bills, a roof over their head a stable family life. Whilst there are a few who want to get involved in local politics most expect the Government to provide adequate local services so that they can get on with their lives.

I also understand that funding will be found to send in civil servants to 'guide' and 'train' local representatives? This funding will come from dormant bank accounts  At a time when we are being told that decreasing the deficit is the first priority why, oh why are we embarking on yet another costly wacky idea? (We've already learned that about £2 billion is going to be found to fund the restructuring of the NHS as posted here.).

You can read more in this BBC News article.