TOMORROW'S TEACHERS' STRIKE WAS AVOIDABLE

THE teachers’ strike is as avoidable as the firefighters’ industrial action was last week, but in both cases the Government has failed miserably in its duty to get round a negotiating table and sort it out.

It’s difficult not to feel sympathy for the teachers when Michael Gove is trying to impose changes to pay and conditions which nobody wants and which are fraught with risk.

Take the proposals on performance related pay.  The Government has repeatedly shown how out of touch it is with real people, and this is yet another example.  Teachers are motivated not by money but by a genuine desire to educate and help young people reach their potential.

But that sort of social conscientiousness is alien to Michael Gove and his Tory colleagues.

Then there are the half-baked plans to remove consistency between pay from one school to the next.  There is simply no logic to it and the plans will open schools up to all sorts of risks including equal pay claims.

The Welsh Government has engaged with unions and progress is being made to reach agreement without the need for industrial action.

Michael Gove’s failure to do the same has forced teaching unions to take action they would prefer not to.  The strike will of course cause difficulties for a great many parents, and the blame for that lies squarely at the door of Mr Gove and his Tory Government.

STRIKE ACTION TAKEN AFTER MINISTER FAILS IN HIS DUTIES

BRANDON Lewis’s failure to return to the negotiating table resulted in the predicted industrial response last week, as firefighters underwent a half-day strike.

The Fire Minister’s unwillingness to liaise with union chiefs is an absolute disgrace, especially after the FBU went to great lengths to offer Mr Lewis chance after chance to talk.

 

I was hugely impressed with the attitude shown by firefighters during the four-hour strike, with many pledging that they would still be prepared to jump to action if an emergency required it.

 

That proves beyond doubt that they were motivated by their morals and ultimately committed to protecting the people they serve.

 

Which is more than can be said for Mr Lewis. Any morals he may have once had must have gone out of the window as soon as he was handed a ministerial role.

 

And as for protecting people? Mr Lewis’s firefighter pension plans, which have caused this storm, prove he cares not a jot for public safety and is only interested in saving a quick buck by throwing fitness standards to the wind.

 

Now we hear that all three of Derby’s fire stations are set to close – including two in my Derby North constituency – as the Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service desperately seeks to reduce costs in the light of Government cuts.

 

It is a huge worry in terms of response times and how safe people can feel in their own homes, and once again we are left looking to an uncaring Government to demand a fair deal for our city, by properly supporting this vital emergency service.

 

I was fortunate to meet with some of the striking firefighters during the Labour Party conference, and to hear first-hand their passion for the service and determination to fight for what they consider to be right.

 

They feel angry not just about the proposals to change their pensions, but also about the underhand way in which the Government, and Mr Lewis in particular, have sought to twist public opinion.

 

Misleading pension figures have been published and best-case, rather than realistic, scenarios detailed as Mr Lewis has attempted to win a PR battle.

 

And it should never have been about PR. Mr Lewis should have done his job and negotiated rather than try to spin his way out of trouble.

 

The FBU in Scotland have managed to secure more talks, so why wasn’t Mr Lewis prepared to extend the same courtesy to those in England?

 

It smacks of a Government which is out of touch and a Fire Minister who is well and truly out of his depth.

 

 

GOVERNMENT IS USING TAXPAYERS’ MONEY TO SUBSIDISE GUN OWNERSHIP

THE revelation that the Government is losing money hand-over-fist bankrolling gun ownership is the starkest indication yet that Tory priorities are dreadfully misplaced.

Some £20m of taxpayers’ money is being frittered on gun licences every year.  This at a time when local authorities have been forced to cut spending so deeply that the very future of many public services is under serious threat.

It costs £50 to acquire a gun licence, which last for five years.   Yet the cost to the police of processing each application amounts to £200.  So for everyone who feels the need to own a gun, it takes three of us to chip in an equivalent amount in order to subsidise them.  How can that possibly be right?

What makes it worse is that the Home Office minister Damian Green made a pledge to resolve the issue by ensuring full cost recovery of the gun licence fee.  Yet after receiving approval from the Treasury and Regulatory Policy Committee, the Government’s new Reducing Regulation Committee decided to block the move.

Why would that possibly be?  Could it be anything to do with the green wellie brigade being Tory Party supporters? 

Later today George Osborne is due to tell the Tory Party faithful at the Conservative conference that he’s going to end the ‘something for nothing culture’.  But it seems this crackdown doesn’t apply to shooting fraternity.  Is it just possible that the same twisted logic that saw the Tories reduce support for the poor while cutting taxes for the rich was at play again in deciding to halt the policy change?

Whatever the reason, it shows that the Tory-led Government has no grasp of reality whatsoever.  The elderly and infirm and being expected to pay more for their care, the young and aspirant are being asked to pay more for their education, people in receipt of benefits are being forced to survive on less.

Yet gun owners don’t have to pay their own way, with the rest of us instead being burdened with picking up their bill.

It’s simply not right.

Why can’t gun owners cover the costs they create by simply putting more in to start with?  If they must have guns, then let’s put the licence fee up to at least £40 per year, making it self-funding.  Better still, increase it further so that it doesn’t just break even, but actually produces a small surplus to support public coffers so the gun-owning fraternity can gradually pay back some of the millions they have cost us already.

Of course, that’s far too logical for this Government.  In this case, it’s one rule for us and no rules at all for them.

We may never know how the Reducing Regulation Committee convinced itself it was doing right by dismissing the changes that would have meant full cost recovery of gun licences.  But what we do know is that it’s a decision that will continue to cost the rest of us, quite literally, until something is done about it.  That is why I have tabled a series of parliamentary questions to highlight this abuse and press the Government to change its stance.  Time will tell whether it will.

LEST WE FORGET

WITH the Tory Party Conference getting underway it’s worth just examining the Tory-Lib Dem Government’s record during their 39 months in office.

So when we hear the rhetoric emanating from the Tory conference hall in Manchester this week let’s remember:

 

·         prices have risen faster than wages in 38 of the 39 months that David Cameron has been in Downing Street.

·         working people are an average of almost £1500 a year worse off under David Cameron.

·          family energy bills have been allowed to rise by £300 a year since the general election.

·         under the Tories we’ve had slowest recovery for 100 years and 1m young people are out of work.

·         David Cameron’s cut tax for people on over £150k a year while raising it for everyone else

·         while small businesses struggle to get credit, bankers’ bonuses are up 82%

·         Cameron wants UK to participate in a race to the bottom for lowest wages & fewest rights at work

·         there are 5,000 fewer nurses in the #NHS under David Cameron

·         the Tories wasted £3bn on a damaging #NHS reorganisation nobody wanted & nobody voted for

·         people are being denied vital #NHS treatments, from cataract removals to hip replacements

·         NHS patients are waiting longer to be seen in A&E

·         since autumn 2010 our economy has grown by just 1.7% compared to the 6.9% expected at the time

·         UK economy’s currently 3.3% below its pre-crisis peak. USA is 4.6% above its pre-crisis peak

·         David Cameron and George Osborne are set to borrow £245bn more than they planned in 2010

·         the independent Office for Budget Responsibility says that deficit reduction has “stalled”.

·         average energy bills have risen by £300 since David #Cameron became Prime Minister

·         Britain’s big six energy companies have enjoyed a £3.3 billion windfall in profits since 2010.

·         Cameron’s broken his promise he gave to me at PMQs that he would force energy companies to put all consumers on the cheapest tariff.

·         only one Green Deal package has “gone live” since the scheme launched in January

·         investment in clean energy fell from an all-time high of £7.5bn in 2009 to £5.3bn in 2012

·         almost a million young people are unemployed

·        people working part-time because they can’t get a fulltime job is at highest level since records began

·         the number of people unemployed for over two years is up 60% since the General Election

·         the number of 16-18 year olds starting apprenticeships is down by 12% in the last year

·         8 out 10 people who’ve been on Work Programme for 2 years have failed to get a sustained job

·         the ‘Youth Contract’ to help young unemployed get a job is set to miss its target by more than 92%

·         two thirds of people hit by the unfair and hated Bedroom Tax are disabled

·         the number of children living in absolute poverty has risen by 300,000 under this Tory-led Govt

·         the IFS estimates that 1.1m more children will be living in poverty by 2010 thanks to this Govt’s policies

·         almost 350,000 people relied on food banks in 2012-13 - compared to 41,000 in 2009-10

·         Michael Gove says families use #foodsbanks because they can't manage their money properly

·         the #NHS has lost 5,445 nurses since David #Cameron became Prime Minister

·         NHS waiting lists are rising

·         David Cameron is cutting 15,000 police officers by 2015

·         response times to 999 calls are rising – night-time emergency response times are up to 30% longer

·         cutting 5,000 #firefighters by 2015

·         the Government is looking at how to privatise the fire and rescue service

·         last year under David Cameron, nursery costs rose six times faster than wages

·         the Tories cut Labour’s help with childcare costs. Families are losing up to £1500 PA in tax-credits

·         David Cameron will have taken up to £7bn a year of support away from children by 2015

·         there are now 566 fewer #Sure Start children’s centres than in 2010

·         more than half of all free schools have opened in areas without a shortage of school places

·         twice as many infants are now being taught in large classes compared to 2010

·         Messrs Cameron and Gove are allowing unqualified teachers to teach in academies and free schools

·         there are now 6,063 fewer teachers than in 2010

·         5,950 teacher trainee places are unfilled this year

·         last year a third of councils reported a cut in the number of after-school clubs

·         housebuilding is at its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s

·         average rents have gone up by 9% since the election – rising faster than wages

·         homelessness is up by 25% since the election

·         the most deprived areas in the country are seeing the biggest cuts in their resources

·         one third of Tory councils have increased Council Tax, despite #Cameron's boasts of a freeze

Britain can do better than this!

 

LABOUR WILL REPEAL THE BEDROOM TAX, WITHOUT EXTRA BORROWING

AT a time when this Government is standing up for a privileged few by giving a tax cut to millionaires, it’s appalling that vulnerable people, many of them disabled, are being plunged into arrears and debt as a result of David Cameron’s Bedroom Tax.

Labour has announced that in Government we will repeal the Bedroom Tax.  We’ll pay for that by reversing Government measures including the recent tax cut for hedge funds, the shares for rights scheme (which opened up a massive £1 billion tax loophole) and tackling tax scams in the construction industry.

This will provide a glimmer of hope to the over 400,000 disabled people hit by David Cameron’s cruel and unfair measure.

The move also demonstrates what life under Labour will be like.  Not borrowing more in these tough times, but using Labour values to guide a different set of Labour priorities.

The fact remains that the Bedroom Tax does not deal with the problem that it’s supposed to solve, that of under-occupation.  In fact, the Government’s costings on the amount raised from the Bedroom Tax explicitly assume that people do not move into smaller properties.

It is because Labour is serious about getting the social security bill down that repealing the Bedroom Tax is the right thing to do.  As well as being cruel and unfair, growing evidence shows that the Bedroom Tax costs more than it saves, partly because those forced to move to the private rented sector will end up costing more in Housing Benefit.  Councils and Housing Associations say that tens of millions of pounds are likely to be lost through the build up of arrears.

We need a recovery that benefits everyone, not just a few at the top.  Labour’s approach to bringing social security down will be to ensure that more people are in work.  That is why we want to help to make work pay by introducing a lower 10p starting rate of tax – paid for by a mansion tax – and to repeat the tax on bankers’ bonuses to pay for a compulsory jobs guarantee for young people.

Unlike this vicious, shameful and shameless Tory-Lib Dem Government, who look after the rich and powerful at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable citizens, Labour will deliver fairness for everyone

ARCHITECTS OF MISERY

THIS weekend saw the start of the Liberal Democrats’ annual four-day exhibition of propaganda, fiction and selective history.

Party conferences are inevitably focused on all that is good about a political party, but these last three years must really have had the Lib Dem spin doctors scratching their heads in search of inspiration.

What can you say about a party which has repeatedly sold out on its promises, failed to deliver a single manifesto commitment in government while wholeheartedly backing Tory policy and tainted its reputation forever through complicity in the social wrongs of David Cameron and Co.

And it is that last point which must really make Lib Dem voters squirm.  Let’s face it, the Tory-led Government would not have been able to do anything without the votes of Lib Dem MPs.

That means Nick Clegg and his Lib Dems are responsible for wages falling by £1,500 since the last election, for more than a million young people being out of work and record levels of long-term unemployment.

Spiralling energy bills while providers’ profits soar, the loss of 5,000 nurses in struggling hospitals, the housing crisis, the list goes on and on.

For with every Tory cut, every family forced into poverty, every individual struggling to cope, every small business forced to close and every public service that falls, there in the background lingers the Lib Dem stamp of approval.

And for all his pre-election bluster and impassioned pleas back in 2010, their shameful leader Nick Clegg has proved without any doubt that he is nothing but a charlatan; the man who promised the earth but delivered the Tories.

Of course, the writing was on the wall pretty early in their relationship.  The first sign came at their press conference as they announced their union in the gardens of 10 Downing Street.

While Mr Cameron laughingly brushed aside previous insults he had fired at his Lib Dem counterpart, a humiliated Mr Clegg stood alongside him with an uncomfortable look on his face.  It was clear back then who was wearing the trousers.

And it didn’t take long for that to come to fruition, as the Lib Dems disgracefully reversed the pre-election pledge to scrap tuition fees, voting in favour of a Tory commitment to treble them.

They also warned of a Tory VAT rise before helping their allies deliver one, as well as pledging 3,000 more police before voting through a cut of more than 15,000 officers.  Their duplicity is almost beyond words.

But even the most fervent Lib Dem supporter may have been prepared to swallow all of this, to accept subservience to their Tory masters, to sell their voters down the river and to break their pre-election promises, if there had been a reward in return.

In coalition arrangements, that reward is supposed to come in the form of policy.

One would presume that at some stage in the discussions before forming a coalition, Mr Cameron would have said to Mr Clegg: “We’ll help you deliver on some of the speculative, unrealistic drivel you’ve been pledging in opposition for the last 20 years, if you help us cripple society, shrink the economy and make our funders richer at the expense of the vulnerable, poor and public services.”

Well, OK, perhaps not using those words, but you get the idea.

Yet there has been nothing in return for the Lib Dems.  The Tories have got on with delivering their ideologically-driven social experiment, but what about the Lib Dems?

The electoral reform they have talked about endlessly was made partially possible by a referendum on an alternative vote system, but fundamentally undermined by the Tories enabling the vote but making their opposition clear.

The Tories went even further with the Lib Dems’ House of Lords reform, refusing to back it and forcing Mr Clegg to embarrassingly abandon it.

And then there is the mansion tax, which the Lib Dems set out as policy but even they voted against it in Parliament.

The whole thing brings shame on the Lib Dem leadership who have stuck two fingers up at their voters and said: “Thanks for the mandate, but actually being in power matters more than the promises we made to you.”

Not that the abundant promises Lib Dems have frivolously made in opposition, believing they’ll never have to deliver them anyway, are necessarily wholly sensible.  But that’s hardly the point.

The point is that they have shown once and for all that they are not to be trusted.  They’ve had their crack at power but have absolutely nothing positive to show for it.

Party conferences must get harder and harder to stomach for even their loyalist backers.

Three years holding up a Government, which has punished the poor while giving millionaires a tax break.

Three years supporting Tory policies like the £3bn top-down reorganisation of the NHS while delivering not a single policy of their own.

Three years in which they’ve shown their true colours – and if yellow certainly symbolises the cowardly way they have submitted to their Tory masters, blue is the colour that will define their disgraceful term in Government.

WE HAVE TO END THE EXPLOITIVE USE OF ZERO-HOURS CONTRACTS

THE growth of zero-hours contracts in Derby is a real concern. Far too many Derby residents, particularly young people, are employed on zero-hours contracts. I’ve spoken to constituents who have told me about the struggle they and their families face on a daily basis.

For people bringing up a family the pressures are intolerable. Some have had to sacrifice time with their kids in order to be available whenever their employer requires them to be, even if there is no work. Others are required to work exclusively for one employer with no guarantee that they will get enough hours to pay the bills. I’ve also met people employed on zero-hours contracts even though in practice they work regular hours.

This kind of insecurity and stress can’t continue, which is why Labour has set out plans to outlaw the exploitive use of zero-hours contracts.

A Labour Government would ban employers from insisting zero-hours workers be available even when there is no guarantee of any work, stop zero-hours contracts that require workers to work exclusively for one business and end the misuse of zero-hours contracts where employees are in practice working regular hours over a sustained period.

The Tories love to talk about the need for a ‘flexible workforce’. But flexibility should not be an excuse for the exploitation of hard-working people. Flexibility should not amount to job insecurity and having to be flexible about whether you can afford the weekly shop. We’ve got to put a stop to that and that is what Labour is determined to do.

Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Clegg boast that they’ve fixed Britain’s economy. But what they won’t say is that their economic recovery is only benefitting a few at the top. They refuse to acknowledge that the vast majority of hard-working people, too many of which are employed on unstable zero-hours contracts, are being bypassed.

We need to build an economy that works for working people because a recovery that only benefits a few at the top is not only unfair but also unstable. Working people should feel confident and secure at work; ending the exploitive use of zero-hours contracts is an integral part of achieving this.

LABOUR WILL OUTLAW EXPLOITATIVE ZERO HOUR CONTRACTS

ED Miliband will tomorrow (Tuesday) declare that a One Nation Labour Government will outlaw the exploitative use of zero hour contracts that make life a misery for thousands of families.

In a speech to the TUC in Bournemouth, he will return to his theme of building an economy which works for working people, saying a recovery which benefits only a few at the top is not only unfair but also unstable.

He will set out some of the big reforms Labour will make to create an economy which works for working people including measures to get young people back to work, improve vocational education and create more apprenticeships.

He will say such an economy which works for working people must have security as one of its foundation stones.

Although the flexibility of zero hours contracts can benefit both employers and employees in some circumstances, the increasing use of such contracts has left too many families insecure, and exposed others to the risk of exploitation.

Some employees are forced to be available whenever the employer requires them, even if there is no work. Others are required to work exclusively for one employer, and yet have no guarantee that they will get adequate amounts of work in return.

Still more are on zero hours contracts even though in practice they work regular hours. Ed will say that a Labour Government will outlaw the exploitative use of zero hours contracts. He will propose three specific measures:

• Banning employers from insisting zero-hours workers be available even when there is no guarantee of any work.

• Stopping zero hours contracts that require workers to work exclusively for one business.

• Ending the misuse of zero hours contracts where employees are in practice working regular hours over a sustained period.

Ed will announce that he has asked Norman Pickavance, former Head of Human Resources at Morrisons, to chair an independent consultation with business groups and others on how these measures could work.

In particular, he will investigate a number of options for how to ensure that workers who are actually working regular hours week in week out cannot simply be left on zero hours contracts without their consent.

These include the assumption that workers will move on to a regular contract after a specific period of regular employment.

Mr Pickavance will also work with business to investigate whether other measures should be considered and whether additional legislative steps should be taken.

GOVT OUT OF TOUCH ON LIVING STANDARDS

IN an important debate on Britain’s cost of living crisis this week, Labour MPs attacked the Tories and Liberal Democrats for being out of touch, and failing to turn things around for Britain’s hard working families.

Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Clegg say the economy is fixed but for ordinary people things are getting harder, not easier, with prices rising faster than wages.  Wages are down an average of £1,500 a year since David Cameron became Prime Minister.  That is equivalent to a reduction of 6.5 per cent across the East Midlands.

Meanwhile, prices have risen faster in the UK than any other major economy and under the Tories we have had the slowest recovery for 100 years, with almost one million young people now out of work.

Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Clegg along with the rest of the Tory and Lib Dem parties are utterly out of touch with the difficulties faced by ordinary families who can see they  only stands up for the wealthiest.  By making ordinary people pay more than their share to bring down the deficit, while cutting taxes for an elite few at the top, these Tories and Lib Dems are showing whose side they’re really on.

Most people are crying out for real change.  Of course I welcome the recent upturn in growth, as any growth, after three years of stagnation, is good news.   

But Britain needs a strong recovery and a plan for a more balanced economy which boosts the living standards of everyone not just the few at the top.

 

THIS DITHERING ON BIG PROJECTS IS CRIPPLING BRITAIN

This articleby the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was published in the Evening Standard on 5 September 2013

A YEAR on, we can be proud of the success of London 2012. The Olympics showed that Britain can decide on, and then deliver major building projects when there is cross-party consensus and a sense of national purpose. But that isn’t always the case when it comes to big infrastructure projects.

For decades, successive governments have all too often ducked and delayed the vital decisions we need to take for the long term. That’s why last autumn I asked the man who led the successful delivery of the Olympic venues and infrastructure to come up with a plan to help end this dither and drift.
Sir John Armitt’s report today sets out a clear blueprint for how we can better identify, plan and deliver infrastructure for future generations. Because there can be no doubt that we need to act.
Only yesterday Britain fell from 24th to 28th in the world for the quality of its infrastructure in a global league table. And official figures show that only seven out of 576 projects in the Government’s infrastructure pipeline have been completed — 80 per cent haven’t even started construction. 
This isn’t good enough. After three damaging years of flatlining we need to act to secure the economic recovery: investing in our future transport, energy and housing needs can create jobs now and strengthen our economy for the long term. That’s why I have backed the IMF’s call for a £10 billion infrastructure boost this year, which could build 400,000 affordable homes.
But governments also need to grasp the nettle when it comes to making difficult long-term decisions. As Mayor, Ken Livingstone did finally convince the last Labour government of the case for building Crossrail, which we secured funding for.

On the other hand, what we do about airport capacity in London and the South-East is a classic example of a decision that has been ducked and delayed for far too long. I welcome the review by Sir Howard Davies, which is trying to find an evidence-based way forward. But the Government has kicked the can down the road and said the final report should not be published until after the election. Labour is clear this delay is regrettable, because the longer we postpone these decisions, the more damage will be done to our economy.

So Sir John Armitt says today that we need an independent National Infrastructure Commission — appointed on a cross-party basis — to identify our long-term infrastructure needs and monitor plans developed by governments to meet them. Parliament would, of course, have the final say, but the commission will help ensure decisions cannot be kicked into the long grass.

And as the Armitt review says, value for money is vital when it comes to big infrastructure projects. That’s why I have said that, while Labour supports a new north-south rail line, the soaring costs of High Speed 2 under this government are concerning: there can be no blank cheque from a Labour Treasury.

Armitt has set out an excellent report. Now the Government should help end decades of drift and delay by working with us to make it a reality. The Olympics showed Britain can deliver. We need the same drive and spirit for the next 30 years. That way we won’t let future generations down.