Budget blues spell danger for Tories

Do you really trust this man?

Tomorrow will see George Osborne unveil his second budget since coming to office almost a year ago and its clear that the wheels are falling off this reckless strategy of cutting too far and too fast.

On deficit reduction the chancellor has shown leadership of sorts, but on growth, he has been absent from the debate.

The biggest test of the budget is whether it is good for growth, and the biggest risk to recovery is complacency about the ability of free markets alone to deliver recovery.

We have seen too much complacency from Tories on growth. The recent budget meeting on Medway Council saw Tories salivating at the prospect of slashing local services for people. Now they appear in abject denial about a cumulative £30m cut to local services which is somehow a positive development.

A bit of honesty though is too much to expect from Tories worried about an electoral slap in the face.

Anyway, if Gideon is listening, the data should have been his wake-up call. GDP figures for the last quarter of 2010 were alarming, showing the economy contracted by 0.6%. The government blamed snow, but it snowed in Germany and the US too, and they still grew.

The second wake up call should have been last week’s unemployment numbers, the highest in 17 years. Combined with falling house prices, and today’s figures showing inflation rising to 4.4 per cent, it is hardly surprising the government’s independent Office of Budget Responsibility have consistently downgraded their 2011 growth forecast at every chance, from an initial estimate of 2.6%, to 2.1% now, likely to be downgraded to 1.8% tomorrow.

Plan A is not going according to plan. These facts should be the wake up call the government needs to rethink.

Mr Osborne’s fall-back – his implicit Plan B – was looser monetary policy. But with the MPC currently split over whether to increase rates, and a consensus emerging on a rate rise in the late spring or early summer, Plan B is looking as forlorn as Plan A.

Jonathan Portes, writing in the Financial Times recently, said this

“…relies on an odd view of market psychology, one that says markets have more confidence in governments that never adjust policy, even when it is sensible…History suggests the opposite: that the real hit to credibility comes from sticking to unsustainable policies.”

Now is the time for a credible and substantial growth strategy.

First and foremost, we need to begin building the Britain of the future. In particular, what we do need is action to help hard-pressed families with the rising cost of living and removing barriers to growth.

This should include Ed Miliband and Ed Balls’s proposals for a £2 billion bank bonus tax to create 110,000 new jobs:

• The provision of a £1.2bn to fund the construction of more than 25,000 homes;

• A £600 million fund for youth jobs; and

• A £200m boost for the oversubscribed Regional Growth Fund.

But we also need to see the government publish the still outstanding green paper on growth and we need it quickly.

The public recognise the need for austerity, but they also want to know the government have learnt the lessons from the crisis, and that they are determined to build a fairer and more sustainable economic future for Britain.

Britain could be a world leader in the jobs and technologies of the future, but only if the government supports growth There is no better place or time to start on that path than tomorrow’s Budget;. let’s hope the chancellor seizes that opportunity.

I doubt he will

Time for CCTV Car review

This blog has been leading the charge for years that the Council CCTV cars needed to be fully reviewed and if found to be manifestly against the public interest, scrapped.

We all accept enforcement of our streets and the penalisation of incosiderate and dangerous drivers who park on double yellow lines.

But what is ironic, especially as the Council releases photos of cars on double yellow lines under the titles of inconsiderate and unsafe drivers, is that the same vehicle which is taking the photos, is presumably breaking the same highway rules in the photos it is picturing others doing. So by default you would assume, being unsafe as well.

Of course there is statute which allows the cars to park on double yellow lines, under RIPA (2000) but the public, whilst they may support the vehicles - though the evidence seen on this remains very scant, and is comprised of a series of surveys, probably unscientific and unweighted, as yet unpublished - they do not support double standards.

The Labour Group position is sensible and considered. Labour has not rushed to scrap the vehicles, which could have been the knee jerk reaction of the populist seeking a quick vote.

It has promised a full, consultative and transparent review to really find out from the public whether these vehicles ae desired and the extent of this. A full review to ascertain whether it is fair play for the cars to break the same rules it enforces and a full review on the operational conduct and revenue allocation, to ensure these cars are being used in the public interest and not the ever-so-common, profit motive.

There is a groundswell on both left and right of the political spectrum for these cars to be looked at and it is clear after press and national commentary; that the time is pressing.

Pressing because the number of vehicles may be about to increase. A question this blogger asked at full Council, which was met by an unsatisfactory response from the ruling elite.

Once again; Labour locally are leading the charge with ideas.

Cameron's First War

David Cameron's speech today in the chamber hit the mark. Whilst I disagree with huge swathes of the Conservative agenda he was bang on the nail about Libya.

Some very fair points mentioned by opposition and back bench Conservative MPs that in light of the major changes in the region; it makes the rushed Strategic Defence Review look obsolete.

He was right to stipulate the three criteria for intervention; i) UN Mandate / Authorisation ii) Regional Support (Arab League and NATO) and iii) A clear and present threat to civilians.

One of Cameron's stronger speeches and a just war.

Victory for the Community

Positive news today from NHS Medway that the blood clinics that had been threatened with closure have been saved after a welcome u-turn.

It was clear that there was widespread and public opposition to the closure from residents, independent petitions, Conservative MPs (Mark Reckless) and Councillor Ted Baker and the Labour opposition locally including Councillors Teresa Murray and Nick Bowler who have been working hard door-to-door to get a mass petition signed.

Maximum pressure has been applied with open letters and public calls for appropriate consultation. A concerted effort has been made using all the mediums at local residents disposal to register our discontent and someone sat up and listended.

All credit where its due to local residents who signed petitions in pharmacies, on doorsteps and online.

We await to see the small print, but on the face of it a welcome development

Services for elderly people must be maintained in Rochester. There are many people close to retirement who use these services and who do not want to have to travel miles for basic care.

Healthcare is a right not a privilege.

You cant trust the Tories on the NHS

Most commentators gave it to Ed Miliband this week and David Cameron clearly lost it when he petulantly flung his folder before answering Ed Miliband's question.

The Prime Minister is known in Westminster circles for being petulant and out of touch. This type of flinging of folders highlights this.

Meanwhile, the key theme of PMQs was the issue of the NHS which the Tories are trying to privatise by the back-door.

We see the cuts agenda locally in Medway with the closure of blood clinics in Rochester.

Cllr Teresa Murray and Nick Bowler are conducting roaving surgeries and have had success with a petition to protect the centre from cuts.

Labour is also urging people to back our online petition and local independent petitions who are also fighting the Tory cuts locally.

Teresa and Nick are fighting cuts to Rochester Clinics

The Tories have undermined the principle of free healthcare since the foundation of the NHS.

Unemployment figures show Tory policy failure

Another day and another set of figures which highlight that the Conservatives are cutting too far and too fast and that there is an alternative to the reckless fiscal fascism that is being inflicted on people up and down the country.

Today’s unwelcome figures show that while the recession ended over a year ago the period November-January 2011 saw unemployment hit a record high.

We have not seen this level of unemployment since the last dog days of the Conservatives – 2,529,000 people.

Eight per cent of working age adults in the UK now report that they are unemployed, with practically the same number again reporting that while they are economically inactive they would like a job – 2,359,000 people. The number of vacancies showed a small fall (5,000) on the month, with only 496,000 vacancies across the economy in the three months to February 2011.

What’s more, this total still includes temporary census jobs; excluding census posts there were 467,000 jobs available. There are still five unemployed people chasing every job, and in some parts of the country – as analysis of claimant unemployment data and Jobcentre notified vacancies has shown – the picture is far worse.

Public sector employment has fallen 132,000 on the year. Given that the bulk of the chancellor’s spending cuts won’t kick in until April 2011 this raises questions about the accuracy of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecasts - more than a third of the total drop in public sector employment (330,000) they forecast over the next four years appears to already have taken place.

On the question of whether the private sector can close the jobs gap the jury is still out. Private sector employment is up annually – by a positive-looking 428,000 – leading to an increase in overall employment of 296,000 on the year. But the sorts of jobs that have been created do not suggest a strong labour market recovery:

• 114,000 (39 per cent) are self-employed jobs;

• 12,000 (4 per cent) are unpaid family workers;

• 11,000 (4 per cent) are positions on Government supporting employment programmes;

• 206,000 are part-time (70 per cent); and

• Only 65,000 are full-time employee positions (22 per cent).

Today the Department for Work and Pensions chose to emphasise the positives – a quarterly 111,000 rise in full-time employee jobs resulting from large monthly rises between October-November (68,000) and November-December (57,000).

But overall employment increased by far less, showing a smaller 32,000 rise on the month.

The scale and speed of the private sector jobs recovery remains extremely uncertain and with the private sector set to experience further job losses as the cuts start to bite in April there is no guarantee strong employee jobs growth will continue.

Economic inactivity levels are starting to show large increases – 31,000 on the quarter for women and 12,000 for men. However, these top line figures hide wider trends:

• A 35,000 increase in the number of women saying they are looking after a home or family;

• A 22,000 increase in the number of men who report they are long-term sick; and

• A 30,000 increase in the number of working age women who report they are retired.

Rises in female economic inactivity over 2010 mean that levels are now the highest they have been since 1996.

Youth unemployment is high and rising. Among 18-24 year olds unemployment rose 23,000 on the quarter and 5,000 on the month between November and December. Both young men and young women saw rising unemployment rates and levels – although on the month young women saw a 9,000 rise compared to a 4,000 fall for young men - with the male rate now 19.9 per cent compared to 16.4 per cent for young women. Both rates are unacceptably high – and for women are the highest recorded (since 1992); young men last saw rates this high in late 2009 and in the early 1990s.

The fall in the claimant count is welcome – although not everyone leaving benefits will be moving into work, some will simply have reached the end of their entitlement (should they only qualify for six months of contributory JSA) – and takes levels of claimant unemployment to their lowest since early 2009. But levels remain close to double those we saw before the recession, and with large amounts of Jobcentre support about to be cut, and the strength of the economic recovery extremely uncertain, it is too early to tell whether future months will see further falls.

It’s fair to say that today’s figures presented a mixed picture; but there is far more cause for concern than celebration. Next week’s Budget is a chance for the chancellor to produce a strategy to secure the recovery and invest in jobs and growth.

So what are our MPs talking about today? Not unemployment or jobs.

Meanwhile thousands of our young people are without a job across Medway.

And who says the Tories are out of touch?

City Status suffers arrogant set back

It seems that Councillor Jarrett, the chancer of the Medway Conservatives is once again, for the enth time in 6 months, about to land them in hot water.

This blog is aware that the Advertising Standard's Agency is about to rule against the Medway Conservatives on the issue of City Status.

The ASA is the UK's independent regulator of advertising across all media, including marketing on websites. They work to ensure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful by applying the Advertising Codes. They are non-partisan.

So what is this all about? Readers may be aware that the Tories rebranded the Council in 2010, in what was considered a grave insult to Her Majesty the Queen, and tried to confer city status to themselves.

The Council claimed it was only a small rebranding but the new 'city' logo appeared on bins and other items before it was picked up by concerned members of the community.

When confronted on the matter by the Press, and the potential cost of the rebranding exercise at a time of fiscal austerity, the finance supermo stated to the press that the Council can call itself what it likes, before lambasting the journalist for poor reporting at the next Council meeting.

It seems though the last laugh is on the journalist because the ASA is about to rule against the Tories

Most people would accept defeat, engage in a mea cupla and brush of the issue.

Alas the Tories have gone on full assault with what must be considered the most brazenly strange attack that has come from the Council in recent years.

Even odder then the underfunded pie-in-the-sky joke campaign.

It shows that the Tories have simply lost the capability to represent the interests of residents and are instead going on odd witch hunts at the expense of the public

The press release is in every sense, utterly pathetic:

'To the casual observer, it will probably seem like little more than a storm in a teacup.

Which is why the Tories have written over 1000 words on the matter using Council resources. Big old mug of tea...

But Medway Council now seriously believes the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) should investigate the town Welwyn Garden City, the music venue Nottingham Rock City and even its own headquarters following a bizarre ‘waste of time’ ruling by the marketing watchdog.

An absolutely ludicrous attack. Welwyn Garden City has historical precedence as a 'Garden City' based in fact. The Nottingham Rock City is a rock nightclub and is not seeking to purport to be something which it is not.

These are just some of the places the local authority has listed following an odd and somewhat obstinate adjudication by the ASA.

At the expense of tax payers money which could indeed have been used to improve your services. Why is the local authority wasting time on this 'storm in a tea cup'?

In a modern day twist on the classic novel The Tale of Two Cities the ASA has ruled that Medway Council in Kent should not use a small version of an aspirational logo they have produced for their city status bid on a tourism leaflet they produced several months ago.

The logo was bigger on the bins; though it is true the specific compliant was about the tourism promotion

The local authority says the ruling – due to be delivered on Wednesday (16 March) - lacks any degree of common sense and points out that a number of places across the country use the word city – when they are not one as well.

Given it has not been published in full yet; that is presumptive.

And Medway Council believes that, in the interest of decency and fair play, the ASA cannot make this ruling and ignore these other minor misdemeanours.

So in the spirit of decency and fair play you put out a press statement in advance of the ruling. What fibs...

To compare Medway which are a collection of towns seeking City status with a rock venue or Welwyn Garden City is basing your spurious assertion that these places are seeking to mis-sell what they are not. False argument.

A single complainant claimed that as Medway was not yet a city and only bidding to become one then using this logo was misleading on advertising literature.

A complaint that has been upheld by an impartial arbiter.

The logo, developed at no cost by the council, is being used as a way to promote Medway’s ambition to become a city in a UK wide competition to make a town a city during the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

A free logo amazing! Total fiction; everything has a cost.

It is doing this as it believes becoming a city will helps draw in substantial investment and jobs for the mainly urban area of nearly 260,000 people.

Something I actually agree with

“We put a small logo for our city bid on a tourism leaflet and the Advertising Standards Authority decided to come down on us like a ton of bricks.

No, you misrepresented a place as a City when it is not. Ipso facto you get penalised.

“This leaflet took the council’s own designer less than a day to design and cost the council nothing. We didn’t realise the ASA was going to make this kind of fuss over such a storm in a teacup.

So a free designer working on the Council Payroll spent 'less than a day' to design the logo but apparently was not paid. Unbelievable.

“If they are going to do that, though, they need to look at other places across the country that use the name city in their title.

Not unless there are complaints of mis-representation. But dont let that stop you wasting tax payers time compiling your own list:

“In fact, to help them in this we have compiled a list of other places that they should now investigate.

And off we go... at the tax payers expense.

“After all, if they are going to waste our time then they should at least play fair and waste everyone else’s as well.

Well Im only paid by the tax-payer to manage the Council Finances; this is not personal, honest...

“I must admit I find it staggering. After all, our officers’ time is much better used ensuring our residents get the council services they need and want rather than dealing with bizarre rulings from wannabe quangos in London.

Yes, so we are still talking about it...

Other places that could now come under fire from the ASA following their ruling include:

Finally then... at last...

* London City Airport – which is not based in the City of London, or even a city, and is actually in the London Borough of Newham.

*Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City – These are called cities, but are actually towns in Hertfordshire and have been since 1903 and 1920 respectively. Will the ASA now seek to overturn their historic names?

* Nottingham Rock City – which while based in a city is definitely not a city in its own right and isn’t even a town - it’s a music venue showcasing live gigs. Are groups intending to play there now going to have to change their posters?

* The ASA’s headquarters – which are in a building called Mid City Place in Holborn, which are in the London Borough of Camden, and not in a city (please see notes to editors). Should the ASA have investigated this when they chose to recently rent this office space?

* Cathedral City cheese – as this is made in Davidstow, Cornwall, which is neither a city or has a cathedral.

* London City Airport DLR – this is not in the City of London or in a city.

* London’s City Hall – the seat of the Mayor of London – as this is in the London Borough of Southwark, which is not a city, and the mayor oversees Greater London, which is a geographic region with two cities in it – the City of Westminster and the City of London.

* Surrey Docks, Hackney, Vauxhall, Mudchute, Spitalfields and Kentish Town City Farms – all of which are not in a city, but in London boroughs.

* Milton Keynes – which describes itself on its website as a “cosmopolitan city” and markets “a number of city centre” branded hotels. This is a not a city, but a town and is, indeed, a town which is also bidding to win city status in 2012.

* Milton Keynes City football club – for the same reasons as above.

* The Stratford City Development in East London - next to the Olympic stadium, which is actually in the London Borough of Newham.

* The little known Ocean City Chinese takeaway in Devizes ��� as this is not in a city, but a small market town in Wiltshire, and it certainly is not near an ocean.

If you believe the above is what your Council and its staff should be doing then Vote Conservative in May

Alternatively Vote Labour and kick this inept bunch out of office