"dog-end voters in outlying regions" a rare insight into how politicians view places like Cornwall

Recently Mark Garnier, a Tory MP gave a speech to the Institute for Economic Affairs. He told the think tank:

"This massive argument that is going on about what is going to happen to tax rates for entrepreneurs and risk takers, who are in many cases mortgaging their houses several times over in order to create jobs and create economic activity, we need to be giving a much clearer message to them.

He continued:
"That they don't have to worry about politicians mucking around with tax rates in order to try to attract a few dog end voters in outlying regions of the country."

From BBC News

You have to wonder how pervasive this attitude is in Westminster, with our only major hospital in a terrible situation, no alternatives put forward to our vulnerable rail line at Dawlish and what should be a crisis for government -but blatantly isn't- the poor performing Cornish economy and the terrible state of wages in Cornwall.

I believe this is a very telling insight into how politicians view Cornwall and it must be said other outlying regions. There is a real risk that politicians won't be challenged on this apathy to Cornwall and the same old faces from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties will be re-elected in May and business will carry on as usual, with Cornwall's votes counted and attentions swiftly turned elsewhere. 

What people need to do is send a clear message to Westminster that we have had enough, this will not be done by rewarding the failures of the coalition government and re-elected coalition politicians. It will be done by voting Mebyon Kernow- the Party for Cornwall and demonstrating to the powers that be that Cornish people have had enough of being viewed as dog end voters worth less than tax stability.

You may have heard the name of Mark Garnier before, he was/is the MP that wants to destroy the historic art studios in Newlyn and build new houses to be sold off. 

The day localism died as the Tory/ Lib Dem government seizes control of Cornwall's funding

Recently is has been announced that the coalition has done a u-turn on Cornwall's European funding. The thin veneer of localism has been worn through to expose the control freak heart of the coalition government. They may announce they want devolution to Cornwall in some unspecified and at some point in the future manner, but the reality is both Tory and Lib Dems are control freaks. Quite what our MPs are doing about it is unclear, I don't expect any coalition leaflets soon will state the benefits of having MPs 'at the heart of government.'

It shows the massive disparity between the centre and the periphery and Westminster and local government, when decisions like this are made without any form of consultation with officials in Cornwall, let alone the Cornish public. It had not even been explained to anyone, why this decision has been made. What possible benefits could there be placing these decisions hundreds of miles away from here and made by people that don't live here and aren't accountable to us.

It's high time that the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats stopped all the hollow talk about devolving power to Cornwall and admit that they have no desire at all to let Cornwall have any decision making . Finally reveal that their politicking on more power for Cornwall, is an attempt to take votes off Mebyon Kernow and that their true attention post the general election is the same as it has been for the last four and a half years, take powers and funding from Cornwall! What we need is politicians that actually say things they believe in and will work towards when elected. Rather than the present lot that make the same promises at every election in the hope that failure will continue to be rewarded....

Cornwall needs politicians to care and not just in election leaflets

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has a recycling bag filled with glossy pamphlets, leaflets and sales pitches from politicians. Looking through them, you'd think Cornwall has a bright future the fundamental issues are all addressed. The low wage economy, high house prices, second homes, the saddecline of traditional industries like fishing and agriculture and the lack of support of small businesses, over-development and the list goes on. MPs and prospective MPs know what needs to change, it's not a question of misunderstanding Cornwall, but yet nothing changes?

I could have written this blog and talked about this 5 years ago or 10 years ago or at any point during my lifetime and anywhere in Cornwall. The same leaflets were sent around then, slightly different pictures granted but the same issues over and over again. Like Groundhog day without the charm and humour of Bill Murray and the slight variations of the theme are far from humour and are to the detriment of Cornwall.

I just feel a sheer sense of frustration that nothing ever happens, that change is so hard to come by. It's almost like a conspiracy of ineptitude no matter who we send to Westminster, Tory, Lib Dem or Labour. Especially now when we have 6 Cornish MPs at 'the heart of Westminster' all in the ruling coalition. What exactly is the problem? Is it just a cynical attempt to garner votes? Do they not really care about these fundamental issues?

Please readers do me a favour if the suits from the big parties call, ask them what exactly they do when they go to Westminster? are they not trying or just don't care when they've got people's votes?

Come polling day think about what you would like to change and ask yourself will the person I elect do that, or even bother?

My bedroom tax speech that never was

There was supposed to be a bedroom tax rally in Penzance, on saturday just passed to coincide with the UK wide day of action. But due to the wet and windy weather and the fact it relied on street theater the organisers, Cornwall Anti Cuts Alliance, decided to call it off.  Which was unfortunate as the Tory and Lib Dem government need pressure from every corner of the UK to stop this horrible and pointless policy. Anyway I was as PPC  for the St Ives constituency was (possibly) going to give a speech.

Here it is:

Dydh da Pensans

Here we are marking the 12 months anniversary of the bedroom tax. 1 whole year of a policy that is unfair, does not work and brings shame to the Conservative party and their Liberal Democrat allies. 

The statistics are clear, despite the rhetoric, that this would be helpful to the needy, that it would incentivise people to downsize, this has not happened.

A recent BBC survey revealed that 6% of tenants have been able to move, downsize and avoid the bedroom tax.

That is, 94% of people have been punished by the bedroom tax for simply living in their own home.  

The Tories and the Lib Dems argue that it is not a bedroom tax, that it is not a tax at all. Although bedroom tax has resonance. What the government call it, describes exactly what it is. They call it the under occupancy penalty.

And a penalty it surely is, that same BBC survey revealed that 3% of victims of the bedroom tax have been penalised so severely that they are now facing legal action including eviction.

28% of tenants have been penalised so severely that they find themselves in the unenviable position of falling into arrears for the first time. It is clear that this is a policy that is not working and penalises unnecessarily.

During the recent floods, or to be more accurate when they reached the Thames valley. The Prime Minister declared: “We are a wealthy country”.

He quite rightly stated that if people’s homes were being effected by floods, the government would help.  That the state would step in, use taxpayers money to protect people in their homes. To make their lives more bearable.

But yet this logic, this compassion, this admittance that the UK is wealthy, does not seem to apply to people in social housing. Far from “money being no object” every penny is squeezed out from the poorest in society.

The United Kingdom is wealthy, no matter what the Tories, Lib Dems and their austerity agenda would like us to believe.

The collective heads of Westminster are buried deep in the sand if they believe penalising people is justified.

We need to send a clear message to London that we’ve had enough of the bedroom tax. That the lie we need to penalise the poor, is a shameful lie in a wealthy country. I urge you all to pressurise the government to challenge MPs to talk to people effected by bedroom tax, challenge them to look deep into their own souls and try to find some morsel of compassion. So they too can see that the right and proper thing to do in a wealthy country, is abolish the awful bedroom tax.

Statistics taken from this BBC article.

 

 

 

Cornish Assembly and the Lib Dems

After months of campaigning for a Cornish Assembly by Mebyon Kernow. Liberal Democrats are the first political opponents to break cover and engage with the issue. No word yet from the other political parties, perhaps an idea yet to break into the Westminster bubble. Or perhaps Labour and the Conservatives are waiting to see what the other does.

Days after MK launched the document Towards a National Assembly for Cornwall (pdf link), the Lib Dems voted at conference to make devolution party policy. Allowing Cornwall and other areas to have more say, the exact details are sketchy but not a million miles from my position and indeed Mebyon Kernow's.

But why now? Coming up for 4 years of having Lib Dems in coalition government, 4 years of 3 Cornish Liberal Democrats at "the heart of government", 4 years of policies galore, 4 years of localism. This is the first we hear of it and not in the corridors of power or parliament itself no bills being drafted just a party conference. 4 years of government decades of opportunity and Cornish devolution has only just become party policy. Which kinda contradicts the years of support claimed by Lib Dem press releases.

You might be able to tell at this point that I have some scepticism about this (I feel warranted). So being sceptical how can we explain the push? At the outset it must be said there are some in the party that realise centralised rule has done Cornwall little good. The recent storms, severing of the rail line at Dawlish and the overall lacklustre response from the government has highlighted this. It's not a great surprise then.

But why now and not 4 years ago? I think the answer is simple, it's election tactics. As we've seen with Clegg ruffling Farage's feathers, the Lib Dems are picking weaker opponents. For a number of reasons, firstly it reflects their support and polling they're no longer strong enough to challenge Labour and the Tories. Secondly they want Labour and the Tories to go easy on them in the general election and are hoping to again be peacemakers post 2015. Therefore they don't want to upset red or blue nor do they want to sound too much like them. So rather than challenge the big parties on key issues they're looking to park their tanks on Mebyon Kernow's lawn.

Sound a bit far fetched? Mebyon Kernow an electoral threat to the mighty Liberal Democrats? Consider this before the 2010 election they were polling around 30% of the vote, this worked out in the election as 23% of the vote i.e 59 MPs. These days they're polling around 10% of the vote. In this scenario every single vote counts. Cornish constituencys are all held with single point % majorities, 10% of voters lost equals no LD MPs west of the Tamar.

If polls are correct, half of Lib Dem voters in 2010 won't make that mistake again in 2015, MK are looking to pick up these disenchanted voters and the Lib Dems know it. They know to win in Cornwall they need to win over voters considering switching to MK and stifle our support. They obviously believe sending out press releases and calling meetings is the way to do it. But they are a party of government, for the idea that they are fighting for a better deal in Cornwall to stick. They need to pursue these policies in government.

I'm reminded of Cameron's Minister for Cornwall, an empty pre election promise to take advantage of Cornish disquiet with a distant and uncaring government. I'd love to be wrong, but I'm really sceptical.

In other news Andrew George tweeted triumphantly that Cornish schools will benefit from an extra £3.5 million in funding +1.2%. I asked why Devon was enjoying an extra £16.2 M +4.5%. And the answer was....

Penzance parking....

I live very near to the middle of Penzance and parking is a great problem on my street and lot's of the residential streets nearby. Many people that shop or work in town, park in these streets rather than pay to park in Cornwall Council car parks. I don't really blame these people, parking is very expensive and as we all know there is a recession at the moment, people have less money due to stagnation of wages and rising costs or if they own a business a reduction in trades and profits. Still parking is a major issue here as I blogged a while ago about the Penzance Liberal Democrats campaign to get action for the town at Cornwall Council. See that post here.

For a number of reasons parking has been on my mind, firstly the problem seems to be getting worse and personally getting parked legally means hundreds of yards away from my house and unfortunately outside somebody else's house on another street. Secondly, the traffic wardens are doing great business in Penzance, yesterday afternoon (saturday) at about four in the afternoon the warden came around and ticketed 6 cars that I saw on this street and who knows how many more on other streets. The third thing that has made me think about it more, is the emptiness of some of the car parks in town. In the evening the two car parks at the top of Causewayhead are almost always empty, which implies that the pricing system is out of sync with demand. Also twice in the last fortnight I have been past the St Anthony long stay car park down near the Jubilee Pool. There's no doubt that this car park will be better used in the summer but this is the kind of car park that workers should be encouraged to use. Both for the benefit of Penzance's residents and for the fact that these resources need using not going to waste. Instead here's how the car park looked on the first of December just before midday:

Then the next day at about twenty past nine:

It is clear that the parking policy of Cornwall Council is failing, there are obviously not enough incentives for people to park in car parks, in other words the "carrot" is not enough. Also the "stick" as harsh as it may be (£35 for parking on a single yellow line) is not working it may be making money for the coffers in Truro but it's no good for Penzance, for residents, for businesses or indeed the image of the council. Besides which the council should look to getting people to park in car parks and raise revenue in a less shabby way.

So I got to thinking, what is being done about this? What have Penzance councillors been doing to solve this crisis in our town? How have they been keeping up their campaign that featured so heavily in local newspapers? Unfortunately for the people of Penzance, not a lot at all. Cornwall Council has a Parking Policy Advisory Panel that discusses parking policy (both enforcement and car parks) and informs the Council's cabinet on recommendations. This panel gives councillors opportunity to raise issues in their areas and influence parking policy. So this is the ideal forum for Penzance's councillors to stick up for Penzance and tell Cornwall Council what we need and want. So I was a little disappointed that checking the attendance statistics that none of Penzance's Lib Dem councillors (Mario Fonk, Ruth Lewarne and Tamsin Williams) have attended a single meeting of the panel since their public campaign see here.

Well done to them for getting leaflets printed, getting in the newspapers and highlighting the issue of Penzance's parking but any Tom, Dick or Harry could've done that, what Penzance needs from it's councillors   and what Tom, Dick and Harry can't do is go up to Truro and influence council policy and fight our corner. Honestly Penzance deserves better.

Who voted to Keep Cornwall Whole? and who didn't?

I have been chewing the fat of the amendment that would have protected Cornwall's political integrity and I find some of it quite difficult to chew through, and some of it hard to swallow. There are some surprises senior Tories (D, Cameron and L, Fox) and Senior Labour MPs (Miliband (both) G, Brown) that didn't vote and a shortfall in Labour votes. Looking at the figures of who voted which way there are two things that occour, firstly the amendment could have mathematically been voted through and secondly that there are some surprises over who did vote who and didn't vote. To quickly illustrate the first point the amendment was defeated by 315 to 257, a government majority of 58 in simple terms this means that 80 Members of Parliaments did not bother to vote. Mathematically at least these 80 MPs could have forced through the bill that protected not only Cornwall's integrity but Anglesey, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and the Isle of Wight too. I know it is simplistic to guess the votes of absentee parliamentarians but bear with me while I illustrate my second point.

In terms of broad strokes, the Coaliton Government -give or take a few- voted against the amendment, whilst the opposition voted for it. Voting against the bill was every notable Liberal Democrat from Clegg, Cable, Alexander, Campbell et al through to the back benches. Voting for the bill Cornwall's Lib Dem trio, joined by Charles Kennedy and John Thurso and Adrian Sanders MP for Torbay (unlike his fellow Devonian Lib Dem Nick Harvey who voted against.)

Cornwall's 3 Tories voted for the amendment as did the Isle of Wight MP, but the picture across Conservative party is slightly different, David Cameron did not vote either way, whether in a way of an apology for the Amazon comment or on behalf of his Cornish born daughter we will never know. The much vaunted Shadow Minister for Cornwall Mark Prisk voted for Devonwall as did most senior Tories. Devon Tories; Morris, Parish, Stride, Cox, Colville and Wollaston all voted against the amendment.  However 2 Devon Tories did not vote either way (Swire and Streeter) the same was true of Liam Fox.

Moving on to Labour, no doubt the majority of votes came from this party -including Devon MPs Seabeck and Bradshaw- but the fact that Labour has 258 MPs, and MPs voting for the amendment totalled 243 here there is a shortfall. We've already named 10 from the coaliton and 11 from small parties that voted against and at least 6 who (see below) considering I may have missed a few coaliton MPs at least 44 Labour MPs did not vote either way. I do not have a full list but the party leader Ed Miliband, his brother David Miliband, ex PM Gordon Brown were amongst the Labour MPs who did not vote.

Moving on to the small parties the 3 Plaid Cymru, 5 of the SNPs 6,  2 of the  DUPs 6 and 1 of the SDLPs 3 all voted in favour. The MP for the Northern Ireland Alliance Party, an Independent and the Green MP all did not vote. In other words from the small parties none voted against the amendment, with 11 for and 12 abstaining. To round up some of the information, all Cornwall's MPs voted for the amendment, Devon's MP were divided 7 against, 3 for, 2 abstaining. I must apologise for throughout this blog I have not specified exact details of how Labour, Lib Dem and Tory voted, unfortunately Hansard does not list MPs by party on voting results and not myself being burdened with knowing which party 600 odd MPs are in, I can not be more specific.

Support for the amendment in the Coaliton was extremely thin on the ground, but to return to my first  point, could the oppositon have voted the amendment into the bill? I believe so, if all Labour members had voted (from the Leader down), small parties had been persuaded and Devon MPs brought alongside the Cornish 6 and their allies may well have won. That's as maybe I suppose, but there are some hard questions to be posed by the Cornish members of the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Greens over how they were not able to persuade their fellow party members to support this amendment.

Anyway perhaps as a fitting epitaph to the loss of the Tamar I leave you with the parliamentary exchange between Andrew George LD and Angus Macneil SNP:

 Mr MacNeil: The hon. Gentleman has mentioned history and culture, and there is of course the Gaelic proverb:

"S fhearr caraid sa chuirt na crun san sporran"-

it is better to have a friend in court-and, indeed, Parliament -than money in the purse. With that in mind, I say to my Celtic cousins from Cornwall that Karl Marx in one of his madder moments said that the fate of the Celtic races was to be ruled by the Nordic races. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the treatment of Cornwall could thus be construed as Marxist? Did he ever imagine that when this coalition Government set out their aims, they would end up with Marxism in Cornwall?

Andrew George: Let me quote someone else. It was Matthew Arnold who said that it was the desire of a centralised state

"to render its dominions... homogenous".

The quote is from Column 680 and the voting record deduced from column 696 which also details the defeated amendment, both from the same -November the second- Hansard entry.