Deputy Prime Minister

May 11, 2010 — simonashall

Nick Clegg will be Deputy PM in the new government and it is reward for the courage he has shown in leading his reluctant party to sharing power with the Conservatives. Around mid-afternoon, he began to run the risk that people were going to get pretty hacked off with him if he kept them waiting for too much longer but despite the totalitarian tendencies of Mandelson and Campbell trying to tempt him into a deal that would probably have finished his party – and Labour – off for a generation, he did the proper thing.

I can assure him that Conservative activists are every bit as wary of coalition with the Lib Dems as vice-versa. The natural party of coalition for the Lib Dems is undoubtedly Labour, from where they trace part of their roots. But in this instance, the people of Britain wanted Labour out and if that wasn’t translated into votes quite as emphatically as it should have been because of the in-built majority Labour has retained in the voting system, the sentiment was clear enough for Nick Clegg and Vince Cable to know what was good for them – and the country.

Okay, there’s a fair bit of bad feeling between the two parties in the south especially but this is not a time for that. The issues of Europe and electoral reform will remain medium-sized animals in the room but three years – if that is to be the length of coalition – is long enough to deal with those issues. I feel that conceding a vote on AV is something the new PM may live to regret and that it is too high a price to have paid – but we are all human and removing Labour was a necessary priority.

I have said before that the socially conscious Conservative and the average Lib Dem share a great deal of commonality in social policy and in Vince Cable, Ken Clarke, George Osborne and Philip Hammond, we have a superb economic team to help with recovery. The negotiations appear to have left both parties with incentives to make the coalition work.

Neither Europe nor voting reform were big issues in the campaign – so let’s get on addressing those things that Labour has so badly failed on – education, youth engagement, law and order, the health service, social mobility and building a sustainable economy. I also hope that we will work together to create a more environmentally sustainable nation too - there may be slightly less taste for that on the right of the Conservative Party but it should be another issue where there is some common ground.

As a mark of my commitment to the new government, Nick Clegg will henceforth be NC. All that remains to be seen is the proportion of the Conservative manifesto – itself a major stumbling block for a majority – finds its way into the Queen’s speech.

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Morning after the long night before

May 9, 2010 — simonashall

The need for electoral reform has indeed been highlighted by the result of the general election. Despite the electoral map turning its bluest since the 1992 election, Labour’s many small inner-city seats, the over-representation of Scotland and in-built majority of 90 have helped Gordon Brown stay in Downing Street three days longer than he should have done.

There is a clear case, not for a proportion system that will deliver permanent hung parliaments and rig the voting system in favour of the Liberal Democrats, but for a refining of the boundaries to ensure that every constituency is the same size and that every vote is worth the same. The Lib Dems suffer from this system only because their vote is evenly spread as they try to be all things to all people – it is not intrinsically more difficult for them to win consistuencies than anyone else, as we saw in Eastbourne and Wells.

It is noticeable that many of DC’s inner circle, who were in many cases picked in seats where they had no connections, fared less well than average. It’s interesting because the Conservative Party is often criticised for lacking diverse MPs. But in this case, black, gay and female candidates have been rejected not by the party, but by the electorate. It’s a shame - but hardly the party’s fault.

I believe that Nick Clegg and DC will do a deal. In a sense, the Lib Dems have little choice. If they prop Brown up, they’ll sink back to the 15% support they enjoyed under Ming. If they refuse a pact with the Conservatives, they can hardly claim to be hard done by in the voting system when they’ve rejected a chance at power. Many Conservative activists will feel a ache in the pit of their stomach at the thought of going into coalition with the Lib Dems, but I don’t. As someone on the left of the party I share many of their social aims and the fact that we spend three months each year tearing strips of each other is simply election politics, nothing else.

During times of crisis, you have to work for the betterment of the nation. I don’t believe a Con-Lib coalition will survive any more than 18 months, but neither party has the resources nor the will for another election in 2010 and we need to work to steady the market and ensure that the financial meltdown that is now potentially on the cards is avoided. The markets want the debt tackled now and as the winners of the election, the Conservative prerogative should be to deliver debt reduction. The Lib Dem influence, as I see it, is to ensure that social issues don’t get left behind in this process and keep our party focussed on economic stability, education and social improvement.

The two most burning issues of difference – electoral reform and Europe – don’t need to have a part to play during this time. I utterly oppose membership of the EU – although that didn’t stop me losing in Horsell West by a fifth of the votes that UKIPpers took off me. But even I wouldn’t argue that the time for a referendum on this is now – it can wait until we have people back in work and the country is back on its feet.

Similarly, if Nick Clegg and his party think that the most pressing issue of the day is the case for PR, he’s sorely mistaken. Sure, the British public will say they want reform in the light of this shambles of an election but when it’s explained to them that PR always delivers a shambles and that it would effectively take from them the option of a Labour or Conservative government governing alone, they soon change their mind – and I know that because I explained it countless times on the doorstep. So this too can wait for another time.

The major problem it presents for the Conservative Party is delivery – will people understand the compromises being made if they are reflected in our ability to do what we said we would do? And if there is another election in October 2011, will the fluidity of our politics have continued and where will it have taken us? Labour’s most dreadful legacy, unfortunately, is leading us to a point where views about the best forward were so utterly polarised.

Uncertain times are these - and the last thing that our damaged nation needs.

Posted in Economy, elections, politics. Tags: , , , , , , . 5 Comments »

A very long night (part II)

May 7, 2010 — simonashall

No question about it – the most important thing about last night was ensuring that Woking retained the services of a Conservative MP. All the work that we have been doing in Horsell West and Horsell East was geared to ensuring that Jonathan Lord became the next MP for Woking and that we fought off the Cowley Street Works being foisted on the constituency by the Lib Dems.

They really did throw just about everything at the place – copious literature, Christmas cards, glossy Hello!-style eight-pagers, handwritten pledge letters as well as the on-street campaigns in the town, railway station and the online stuff. We got the full treatment, including a personal and vicious campaign against Jonathan portraying him as a grasping outsider who didn’t care about the town. I’m glad that people have roundly rejected this cynical and low messaging.

Knowing what defeat is like, I’m not going to gloat at Rosie and knowing Rosie, the above carry-on wasn’t her doing anyway. A couple of weeks ago, I don’t mind saying that I was a touch anxious about the way things were going but we finished very strongly and not only did Jonathan hold Humfrey’s majority, he actually increased it - polling an enormous 26,500 votes and 50% of the share for the first time since Cranley Onslow’s tenure.

I’ve worked pretty closely with Jonathan during the past six months and I can tell you that not only is he a hell of a nice guy, he’s also going to be a cracking MP for Woking. If you believed all the cant in the Lib Dem literature, I think it’s safe to say you’ll be in for a pleasant surprise when you meet him and understand his “get things done” outlook on life. He’s an effective and strong voice and will be able to work with Surrey MPs to place Woking’s priorities at the heart of what we hope will be a government led by David Cameron.

Last night, he gave a speech in which he also paid tribute to the other candidates in a way with which I would entirely concur. Representing the people; the democratic process – those things are serious. But politics is fun – let’s remember that now the election is over and put away the silly slurs and insults to work together for what our town and its surrounding villages needs.

Many congratulations Jonathan, may this be the first day of a long tenure for you here in Woking.

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A very long night (part 1)

May 7, 2010 — simonashall

During the past few days I have been too busy campaigning in Horsell West to blog and of course I’m disappointed that having got more than 1,800 votes in the ward – the largest number by some way that I can recall the Conservatives getting - this wasn’t enough to win. The Horsell campaign team – Ben Carasco, Tony Branagan, Michael Gammon, Beryl Hunwicks, Alex Smith, Matthew King, Tim Read and others – worked extremely hard to try and secure a result in the ward and I can’t express enough gratitude for the work they have done.

As John McCain said, the failure is mine, not theirs – but I also have to pay tribute to the Lib Dem effort too. We didn’t see much of them but there was clearly some work being done somewhere as you don’t pull 1,850 votes out of Horsell West by just turning up to the count. It’s quite an achievement and congratulations to Ann-Marie Barker for being elected to replace Richard Sanderson in what was a closely-fought and intense battle with turnout at a furious 77%.

We all care about these things very much, otherwise we wouldn’t be doing them and to say that I’m not disappointed would be untrue. But I’m also philosophical – I knew Horsell West would be very, very close when I put myself forward for selection and I certainly didn’t get sucked into envisaging myself as a councillor on May 7. It’s a ward where nothing can be taken for granted and victory really is only for four years. Let’s also not forget that this was a Lib Dem seat with a majority of around 150 in 2006. So I walked into the hall not a councillor – and I walked back out not a councillor, the only thing it has cost me is the time and energy of the campaign.

And the campaign has been a real blast, a chance to get to know the area even better than you ever believed you could (you start to remember the names of houses and their order on South Road and the location of hidden front doors) as well as meet people from all over the village. I couldn’t honestly say I look upon that as a “cost” – more like a benefit and an experience that will help greatly in the future. It won’t be much of a surprise to learn that I’m not giving up and see highs and lows as part of the political process.

Being a councillor is a great honour but it’s not a requirement for contributing to the community. I will be continuing to do this and – after a suitable break – we’ll see what next year brings.

Meanwhile, congratulations to Dorothy Farrant, new-elected councillor for Byfleet and terrific news for Carl Thomson, who unseated Norman Johns to be the new councillor for Mount Hermon East. Well done, Carl.

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Paper Tigers

May 1, 2010 — simonashall

Not particularly unexpectedly, the papers continue to turn on Gordon Brown as Labour heads for utter wipeout at the election. The Times, which has backed Labour for the past three elections, returns to the Conservatives along with the Sunday Express but interestingly the Grauniad and its sister The Observer is backing the Liberal Democrats, presumably in order to force a hung parliament and keep DC away from Downing Street.

It will also push Labour voters tactically into the hands of the Lib Dems in a reverse of 1997.

What previous Conservative voters thinking about chancing one on Nick Clegg have to consider is this: do they really want to be voting along with Guardian and Observer readers who’ve been happily voting for Labour since 1979? I’ll be the first to admit that the Conservative Party isn’t perfect and I’ve posted before on how I think that is but really, take the thoughts of the Times – which hasn’t supported the Conservatives in 18 years – on board and think about what Britain needs right now.

A hung parliament and Nick Clegg’s promise of change, which means different things depending on where you live, or David Cameron’s visionary and responsible blueprint for Britain that is backed up by a depth of experience within a party with a track record of sorting out Labour’s mess.

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Change that works for them

April 28, 2010 — simonashall

During the last few days, the Lib Dems have been playing a clever PR game by trying to link electoral reform – by which they mean proportional representation’s introduction as our voting system – with “new”, post-expenses, politics.

I’m not altogether against electoral reform. I think that the boundaries currently used for our first-past-the-post system are unfair and give Labour a huge advantage by handing them a built-in majority of about 90 seats, according to Electoral Calculus. I want to see those boundaries re-drawn and the number of seats re-calculated to make for a fairer local representative system – and that includes fairer to the Lib Dems as well.

You routinely hear commentators in the press and the BBC say that the FPTP system discriminates against the third party, as if they had done some research on it and drawn a scientific conclusion. That’s rubbish. All that conclusion is based upon is the realities and record of the system – there is no reason why the Liberal Democrats should have any more difficulty in winning constituencies than anyone else.

The reason it is biased against them is quite simple – they pretend to be a centre-right alternative to the Conservatives in London and the South and a hard-left alternative to old Labour in the north and Scotland. Their manifesto for 2010 cleverly leaves either possibility open. But it does mean that such a dual-personality party cannot hold a “core” vote sufficient for it to win constituencies in sufficient numbers to hold power in FPTP. If the Lib Dems decided what they wanted to be – rather than just pitching for whatever they think they can get away with – their vote in some areas would harden and in others soften. It’s their choice to be at a disadvantage in the system.

But they’re quite happy to overlook that. What they want to do is hold the country to ransom by demanding a referendum on proportional representation in return for offering stability in the event of no party receiving a majority. PR, of course, would not only allow them to hold the balance of power, it would help put pay to their biggest weakness – the idea that a vote for the Lib Dems is a “wasted vote”. It would also allow them to pretend to be “savage cutters” in the south and “tax the richers” in the north while scooping the maximum value from each deluded voter.

It’s not a bad strategy for them – but it should be ringing alarm bells with every single previous Conservative supporter who’s thinking of giving Clegg a chance because he came over well on telly. If you give him the chance he wants, he’ll go into coalition with Brown (or more likely Miliband). They’ll embark on a series of tax hikes and spending cuts not witnessed before in the post-war era. That’s not necessarily to their discredit because any government will have to do the same.

But if you decide after four years that you don’t like them, if Clegg turns out to be not quite what you thought (on Europe, immigration and law and order) and you think in 2014/5 that you’re going to give the Conservatives a chance after all – well, you won’t be able to. Because Lib/Lab will have changed the way things are done and neither the Conservative Party nor Labour would ever be able to govern on their own again. And guess who the beneficiaries of this gerrymandering will be? That’s right, the Lib Dems.

They may call themselves Liberal Democrats, but that doesn’t seem very liberal or democratic to me.

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Woking’s fifth choice

April 28, 2010 — simonashall

We’ve all heard about how local the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate is. She’s been variously “at the heart of our community for thirty years“, “helping people for over twenty years” and has “a strong record of local action” according to Lib Dem literature. Certainly, if the election is a “localness” competition, she would fare well.

What I’m concerned about – and it seems I’m not alone judging by the latest comments on UK Polling Report - is the ability to get things done and stand up for Woking in parliament. And judging by their hesitancy to select Rosie Sharpley in previous general elections, it appears that the Lib Dems agree with me.

Four years after Rosie was elected as a councillor, the Liberal Democrats chose Dorothy Buckrell to stand for Woking in the 1992 general election. In 1997, while Jonathan Lord’s talents were recognised by the Conservative leadership and he was given a teeth-cutting “no hope” seat to fight at the age of 34, the Lib Dems once again passed over Rosie in favour of Philip Goldenberg. In 2001, they chose Alan Hilliar and in 2005, while Rosie was “looking after residents” in Horsham by finally getting selected to fight a seat somewhere, Anne Lee was the candidate in Woking (she “didn’t even live in the constituency“, by the way).

Am I the only one to wonder why it is only now that someone who obviously wanted a parliamentary career has been picked to fight in her own back yard when she’s has 20 years to do so? And doesn’t this make her Woking’s “fifth choice”?

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A Strong Voice is needed

April 26, 2010 — simonashall

After knocking on a few doors over the weekend and speaking to those who manned at our very successful Town Square stall on Saturday, feedback from voters is very clear. They want an MP in Woking who:

1) Has local interests at heart

2) Is an effective advocate for Woking residents

3) Is an effective champion for Woking causes

I fully accept that anyone standing for parliament in Woking has Woking’s interests at heart – why else would they be here? I know that Jonathan Lord has spent many, many weeks getting to know the area with various teams from across the constituency. No doubt Rosie Sharpley has similar motivation.

But let’s look at numbers two and three. Imaging that there’s a bill in Parliament on the future of some grand project such as AirTrack that will affect Woking significantly if it goes ahead. With a direct train route to Heathrow, it will attract thousands of travellers and commuters through the station and boost the Woking economy. Investment in the station to improve facilities and capacity could also follow, making life for the thousands of Woking residents who commute a great deal easier.

Other MPs oppose it – they want an alternative scheme that will benefit their towns instead but Anne Milton in Guildford and the Woking MP are due to give speeches to persuade the house that AirTrack is the way to go and that final funding for it should be approved to the benefit of the area. Below is a series of interviews with all the candidates – the first minute is Jonathan Lord and the second is Rosie.

Who would you rather have making that argument in parliament? If residents want a persuasive advocate and vocal champion for Woking, I believe that there is only one realistic choice and that is to vote for Jonathan. Woking needs a strong voice in parliament and that is something that only he can be.

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One word missing?

April 26, 2010 — simonashall

A couple of weeks ago I blogged that Lib Dem canvassers on the doorstep  had been misleading voters in Horsell West about the size of the existing Conservative majority in Woking. It’s not that the size of the majority is particularly important because it’s the vote on May 6 that counts but my feeling was that people deserved to know how a majority of 6,612 was being misrepresented as 2,000-4,000 to manipulate the psychology of the election. Clever – yes, honest – no.

I did not name the culprit as reported to me because I don’t think it’s hugely fair or relevant – the Lib Dems can’t simply cite one “rogue” doorstepper as any canvassing operation is a carefully organised process. That didn’t stop the Horsell Lib Dem candidate and her sidekick from challenging me on this allegation and demanding proof. Fair enough – I’d have done the same, although I am at least aware of what my team are telling people on the doorstep.

What I’d like to know is that if the Lib Dems really are serious about stamping this misleading information out, if they are taking it so seriously, why is it repeated in their latest leaflet?

Unless of course it’s a typo and the word “thousand” has been missed out between “few” and “votes”. Come to think of it, that’s probably the explanation. It would be no great surprise to learn that their proofreading is as bad as their maths.

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Vote amber, go red

April 20, 2010 — simonashall

Any Conservative voters who really believe that a vote for Nick Clegg will get them a sort of Labour-lite – avoiding the upheaval of a change of government, keeping the half-decent things that Labour has done while not having to put up with the “old party” of Gordon Brown or even Gordon Brown himself – should read this post at ConservativeHome.

We are choosing a government and people need to look at what the Lib Dems will actually deliver if elected. They want to give all pension tax relief at the basic rate – so if you earn more that £37,400 your contributions above that limit will get relief of 20%, not 40%. They also want to tax capital gains at the same rate as income – a 2% increase on the basic rate and 22% on anything above £37,400. They want to scrap the Child Trust Fund, scale back the HomeBuy programme that helps people onto the property ladder, cancel the next tranche of Eurofighter aircraft and cancel Trident. Then there’s the local income tax, the stopping of people going to prison for fewer than six months (effectively ending the power of magistrates to send people to prison) and the threats to reform our voting system so that they will remain in coalition with either the Conservatives or Labour in perpetuity.

In addition, the Lib Dems will push for further European integration and there will certainly be no support for withdrawal from the EU, they will open our borders for unlimited immigration, are proposing an amnesty for illegal immigrants and will continue to be staunch supporters of handing continuing amounts of sovereignty over law and order, foreign policy and taxation to Brussels. Quite a price to pay for a fresh face on the telly.

All of this policy may not be Conservative or Labour and it may not come directly from the mouths of those associated with past ills, although let’s not forget Michael Brown and the fact that Lib Dems too were invovled in expenses and other scandals, but that doesn’t stop it being regressive and contrary to the national interest.

The equation that we face is shockingly simple. The Conservative manifesto sets out a positive future for Britain under David Cameron that builds on opportunity, self-empowerment for individuals and communities and a focus on a high-technology economy to pay off our crushing debts. If you don’t agree with the Conservatives and you’re not convinced that we can deliver, the only other option open to you at this stage is a Labour/Liberal coalition with Gordon Brown as PM. I can’t think of a worse place for Britain to be on May 7 – an outright majority for either of those parties would be better.

We must leave The  X-Factor to Simon Cowell and the pop music industry and keep our sense of proportion in politics. It is time for change and not chance, confidence and not compromise and a future that shows to the world Britain has a plan for recovery.

Posted in Conservatives, Lib Dem lies, elections. Tags: , , , . No Comments »
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