We can't let the Tories take away the hard won freedoms of the human rights act

With the election barely over the Tories are starting the way they mean to go on, determined and uncaring. Vying for first place in their priorities with more punishing cuts the Tories are determined to do away with the Human Rights Act. Not content with joining up with the Lib Dems in their first term to do massive damage to welfare, public services and remove morality from decision making entirely. Content with taking away many of the things the state can do for citizens, David Cameron now wants to go one better and attack liberty itself and attack the protections in law.

For information these are the rights in the HRA

Right to life
Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment

Right to liberty and security
Freedom from slavery and forced labour
Right to a fair trial
No punishment without law
Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence
Freedom of thought, belief and religion
Freedom of expression
Freedom of assembly and association
Right to marry and start a family
Protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms
Right to peaceful enjoyment of your property
Right to education
Right to participate in free elections

You have to come to a point where you wonder what will be left in the wake of the Tories? Which of these rights they wish to do away with? I find it perplexing in the extreme to even imagine which of these principles could be that bad, Right to life? No punishment without law? Freedom of expression? 

Human rights have developed internationally over the last few centuries. When people started to consider that individual freedoms should be explicitly protected in law. To temper the power of governments and to make them be held to account, so they can't act like they wish. So people can't be discriminated against, imprisoned of have their individual freedoms and liberties threatened without cause. One of the reasons human rights even exist, was the collective horror of people over the activities of dictatorships, Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Germany chief among them. People came together fought in world wars so we can live in a better world, a fairer world and a freer world. We must be very wary of a government that wishes to give itself more power, by taking power of off it's citizens. The Tories latest move threatens to attack the very nature of liberal democracy and the rule of law.  

Lib Dems need to come clean about plans for another Tory coalition

Daily leaflets are going through people's doors throughout Cornwall from the Lib Dems. The budgets aside of how much all that printing up country costs and how much the Royal Mail charge. They are all covered in messages about keeping the Tories out. Hoping people have forgotten the last 5 years completely and are unaware that plans are afoot for the Lib Dems again to prop up the Tories.

It's time for Cornwall’s Liberal Democrats to come clean and admit that the anti Tory message is just rhetoric. Nick Clegg told the press at their manifesto launch that he's willing to do a deal with anyone to be in power. What was once a party of principle and common sense is now an empty vessel interested only in power. Little wonder they're facing a wipe out on May the 7th.

Mebyon Kernow will not do a deal with the Tories or any of the Westminster parties. If people want a party that will fight the Tories or any government, for Cornwall to get a better deal, and fairness in policy then vote MK.

Clegg's visit to Penzance and absence from the Autumn Statement

Today 2 things happened in politics, 1 there was the Autumn Statement setting out the Coalition government's priorities for the next budget. 2 Nick Clegg came to Penzance to talk about money put into a breakwater study.

A month ago Penzance Town Council voted to put a contribution towards a study into a breakwater. I blogged about it here. Nick Clegg was in Penzance today announcing the government will put forward their contribution. A welcome step? Yes of course. News? Not in the slightest, the town council was asked by government for a contribution with the understanding they would fund the rest.

This is a welcome step, having proper sea defences is a must for Penzance and is long overdue. As I've written before this is the start of a journey. Having a study conducted will be a step forward, the first if many, afterward funding will need to be found.

So why would the Deputy Prime Minister come all the way to Penzance for a small step? The Cornishman asked Clegg if it was a deliberate snub of the Autumn Statement. Nick of course denied it. I can definitely see why they asked the question. The Deputy Prime Minister avoiding the Autumn Statement is a snub and a silly one. Budgets are massively important things, it lays out what will happen next year or indeed not happen, not being there for essentially a preview of the budget is odd to say the least.

Although I have a different theory. There is a definite reason to snub the Autumn Statement for Cornwall's MPs. We aren't mentioned once. Not especially unusual but when one of the themes of Osborne's speech was devolution and we aren't mentioned (again). Another section titled Northern Powerhouse detailing investment in the North of England. No powers nor including in regional infrastructure funding.

There's no good story there for Cornwall there's nothing for our MPs to be proud of. When the local newspapers hit the stands don't be surprised if the front page is Clegg in Cornwall. Not that Cornwall has missed out on any new spending in next year's budget.

Another nail in the coffin of localism as Pickle's rejects supermarket levy out of hand

The Tory minister Eric Pickles has denied local councils the right to choose to levy a big business. I wrote about a large retailer levy a while back in perhaps an overly academic fashion looking at the pros and cons. I did have some conversations with senior councillors and officers at Cornwall Council and a few months later they did write to government asking for those powers. I have a lot of sympathy with the idea of a big retail tax, all of our town centers have empty shops, yet Cornish towns are increasingly encircled by supermarkets and out of town retail. The small independent local businesses are obviously losing out to the multinational chains and as a consequence money is leaving Cornwall faster than tourists in late August.


What's so thoroughly depressing and frustrating about it all is that man Eric Pickle's again acting like lord and master over local government and indeed local communities. In an amazing act of hyperbole even for Eric he sent out a personal press release the DCLG website states: "Local Government Secretary, Eric Pickles, stood up for hard-working people today." Is frankly bizzare and falls into that typical lazy politician trap of saying what people want to hear regardless of the reality. Is it just hard working people that shop in supermarkets, don't lazy people, unemployed people, students, children and those not able to work shop there too? Do hard working people not shop in town too? or is it just the feckless found on the high street?

This case is so typical of Eric Pickle's despite the fact he said things like this a couple of years ago when he unveiled the localism bill:

"It is the centrepiece of what this Government is trying to do to fundamentally shake up the balance of power in this country. For too long, everything has been controlled from the centre - and look where it’s got us. Central government has kept local government on a tight leash, strangling the life out of councils in the belief that bureaucrats know best."

He doesn't understand localism, him and his government have backtracked on nearly every principle of this forcing councils to accept housing figures they don't want and to effectively cap council tax to pursue their ideology of cutting public services. Recently William Hague ruled out a Cornish Assembly without even asking anyone in Cornwall! The same is true of Eric's refusal to tax big retailers. It's not about what the local areas want, Cornwall Councils can't even ask people if they want this. Eric has decided from his office hundreds of miles away, end of story. This control freakery of Westminster needs to stop, Supermarkets like housing so much else should be our choice not the distant government, which is why I believe a Cornish Assembly is the answer.

No plan for devolution for powers and no understanding of a Cornish Assembly from political elite

I blogged a while back on the lack of plans for devolution to Cornwall Council as (flippantly) promised by the Labour and Tory parties. the title of the blog was: "When will Labour and the Tories let everyone see their back of a fag packet ideas for powers to Cornwall Council?" Which unusually for a title of one of my blogs, pretty much sums up my view on the subject, there's no clear plan. I've since realised that a lot of Cornish politicians are far from being on the same page with me about this. That nailing down what powers Cornwall should have, what laws we could write, what budgets we'd have to spend and what relationships it should have with Westminster, the EU, Wales, Scotland and the South West of England is actually something far advanced of where they are in the book. It's pretty clear many of them are stuck on chapter 1; what is devolution and how do people view it.

After watching BBC Sunday Politics South West, it was clear that particularly Michael Foster and
Sheryll Murray are very passionate about the deficit. They can quote facts and figures that show both Labour and Tories are absolutely wonderful and always did the right thing by the economy (yawn). Similarly on the subject of housing, they are well informed and both raise some interesting points. However when it came to devolution that passion was gone the facts and figures were absent. We might expect a debate about should Westminster retain power over business rates or should that be devolved to a Cornish Assembly? should the power to raise rates on second homes be Cornwall's choice? Or something like what are the pros and cons of devolution to Wales and Scotland, ought we skip the various commissions and argue for more powers now rather than over time? Or even fundamentally what priorities should Cornwall expect from government be it hundreds of miles away or closer to home?

The debate is currently a lot more superficial than that. The fundamental questions that are being grappled with elsewhere are largely ignored by the Conservatives and Labour in Cornwall. The proverbial wood is not even in the corner of their eyes, wholly obscured by a single tree (incidentally the Tory party logo). I know people like me that see direct rule from London as a bad thing are always going to want our politicians to consider these things properly. But it's not just me, devolution is being discussed everywhere. In the corridors of power they are discussing things like what relations local government should have with central government, what powers should be Westminster's and which should go to the nations, regions and cities, who should control spending. At the moment this is happening without meaningful input from Cornwall's Labour and Conservative politicians into these discussions. It's time for them to step up and actually care as much about Cornwall's governance as they do about the history of housing and the deficit in the UK. Because the risk is that this government or the next will come up with their own ideas and we won't like them, either because they ignore Cornwall (again) or because they want to foster some kind of odd South West/ Devonwall devolution or pretend Cornwall is a city and give us a mayor. Devolution will be opportunity that we miss out on if Cornwall's politicians are caught napping.

If any Labour or Tory politicians want to skip ahead a few chapters on devolution might I suggest, Mebyon Kernow's Towards a National Assembly for Cornwall or the Cornish Constitutional Convention website particularly their publications page. Or even talk to their party colleagues in Wales and Scotland who have repeatedly tripped over themselves to give more powers, proper devolution, more funding and a better deal for those places.

For everyone else why not sign the Cornish Assembly petition and email your local Tory and Labour reps and tell them Cornwall wants a fair deal for once.

Cornwall Council in the eye of the storm of austerity

A story is doing the rounds in the press, that a Cornwall Council officer expressed the opinion that services did not need to be gold plated and that the bare minimum would do. This is the latest in the government's austerity drive, four years in and the pressure continues to fall on the smallest authorities.

Back in May the Local Government Association was warning of the consequences of all of this pressure on local councils:

Research carried out by the Local Government Association (LGA) suggests that the impact of spending reductions will start to become increasingly visible over the next two years, as councils tackle a further £10 billion cut in Government funding.

In many areas where the well of efficiency savings has run dry, councils are on the verge of a tipping point where they will not have enough money to meet all their statutory responsibilities.

Government funding given to councils to run local services will have been cut by 40 per cent by May 2015. LGA modelling, which factors in reduced funding and rising demand for adult social care, shows that money available to provide popular services like running gyms, parks, libraries and youth centres is likely to shrink by 66 per cent by the end of the decade.

Councils reaching ‘end of road' 

The key point here is statutory services, with the twin pressures of huge government cuts and a council tax freeze in the last few years by Cornwall Council, non statutory services have been hit hard. Whereas before the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat government came to power, Cornwall Council no longer provides or has greatly reduced things like public toilets, town center cctv, weed spraying, litter cleaning, public transport, upkeep of parks and a whole host of other day to day things, as well of course as thousand of jobs gone. This is because none of these things are statutory duties i.e. there is no legal obligation for the local authority to provide them. But now we are in a situation where the funds will mean that Cornwall Councillors will be faced with the choices of how to interpret statue. Expect nuanced arguments that as the quoted officer has argued that the bare minimum is within the law and services especially worryingly of health and social care will be run down.

This process will intensify and intensify and as I blogged recently all of the Westminster parties are committed to austerity. Not one of the Labour, Tory or Lib Dem leaders has ever defended local government, has ever defended the frontline of public services, or ever stated that they would like to see local government funding cuts halted or even lessened. We are in the eye of the storm, next May it is inevitable that one of the austerity parties or a combination of them, will take power and again austerity and cutting of public services will dominate. The politics of the sloping shoulders will continue and cuts won't fall hardest on Whitehall and government departments but on already hard pressed local councils....

As a postscript if you think statues will protect frontline public services and will force either local authorities or government to properly fund services to a minimum standard, you may be right but do bear in mind the Department for Communities and Local Government is doing a wholesale review on the 1294+ statutory duties...