Posts Tagged ‘Conservative’

Wirral Conservative Councillor Cllr Chris Blakeley recently wrote an article on his Blog highlighting another article in the Liverpool Echo revealing how much money Merseyside Local Authorities have spent on employing private detectives to “snoop on the people of Merseyside”, the title of the article on Cllr Blakeley’s Blog "No Hiding Place" sums up perfectly his view on this subject.

Reading the piece in the Echo it becomes clear that Wirral Borough Council spent a mere £2800 investigating injury claims.

This is important because of eye watering insurance excesses, Wirral Borough Council in common with most other large organisations is largely self insured, ie when a claim is lodged against the Council in the majority of cases it is Council Tax Payers who pick up the bill not the Council’s insurers, in fact the money the Council had to put aside to meet claims in 2004/5 was £5.7 Million, which of course impacts on the Council’s ability to deliver front line services such as Social Care

Since 2005 however claims against the Council have been more thoroughly challenged, which is where our private detectives come in. the result of this policy has resulted in over £3.8 Million being made available to invest back into public services such as Social Care. This Document makes a very interesting read.

I think that Cllr Blakeley should make it clear to his constituents and every other Council Tax Payer in Wirral whether he supports Wirral Borough Council’s efforts in reducing spurious claims against Council Tax Payers or does he believe that Council Tax Payers should just pay out millions to everyone who puts a claim in?

Chancellor Alistair Darling today delivered his second Budget, a full transcript can be read here, however the main announcements are listed below

• Supporting people back into work with an extra £1.7 billion in Jobcentre Plus.

• Supporting 18-24 year olds with a guaranteed job, training or work placement for all who reach 12 months unemployment.

• Supporting pensioners with an additional payment alongside the Winter Fuel Payment worth £100 for households with someone aged over 80 and £50 for households with someone aged over 60

• Supporting savers by raising the tax free Individual Saving Accounts (ISAs) limit to over £10,000.

• Supporting families with children by increasing the Child Tax Credit by £20 a year from April 2010.

• Supporting those made redundant by increasing statutory redundancy pay to £380 per week.

• Supporting homeowners with a £600 million funding package to build more homes through unlocking sites currently sitting dormant

• Supporting the housing market by extending the stamp duty holiday to the end of the year for properties under £175,000.

• Supporting business by extending the Business Payment Support Service to help businesses experiencing short-term cash-flow difficulties.

• Supporting the automotive industry by enabling people who scrap vehicles older than ten years to replace them with new vehicles at a discount of £2,000.

The scrappage scheme supporting the automotive industry is particularly welcome here on Merseyside and will benefit the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port and the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Halewood as well as the numerous firms supplying those plants, a similar scheme is operated with great success in Germany.

David Cameron’s Conservatives do nothing but talk Britain down and shockingly some Conservatives even appear to be enjoying the recession.

Alastair Campbell has written an excellent analysis of the distasteful emails sent by Damian McBride an advisor to Gordon Brown who has since resigned, to Derek Draper editor of the left of centre independent website labourlist.org, who was looking for material to set up a left of centre ‘gossipy’ website called Red Rag in response to some of the more rabid right wing websites the content of which are more likely and not to be scurrilous in nature.

It must be said however that despite the Conservative Parties outrage at the content of these emails and quite rightly so I must say, Gordon Brown and other senior Labour figures have been at the receiving end of some quite shocking personal abuse on these right wing websites and from their supporters.

Whilst insults and personal attacks having been going on for years even locally the content of these emails was particularly juvenile and inappropriate and McBride’s subsequent resignation was the right thing to do, an apology from 10 Downing Street has since been issued and the view of Gordon Brown is that there is  “no place in politics for the dissemination or publication of material of this kind”

The fact is that these rabid right wing websites only exist because the Conservative Party is such an empty vessel and as we all know empty vessel’s make the most noise, whereas the Labour Party has a record to be proud of.

It is this record and how Labour can build on it with progressive policies for the future as opposed to the regressive politics that Cameron & Co enthuse about, that should be at the heart of the message being put out by Labour.

The simple fact is that only Labour has a positive message as opposed to the Conservatives who have nothing to say, hence why they have to rely on chasing headlines and photo opportunities at all levels.

Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP, who is adored by many in the Conservative Party including Wirral Conservative Councillor who is also the Prospective Conservative MP for Wallasey  Cllr Leah Fraser. Also a large number of Conservative Party members would love to see Hannan as Prime Minister, Leah are you one of them?

Hannan has recently been interviewed on Fox News. In that interview Hannan warns the American people against having a healthcare system based on need and not on the ability to pay, during which he says that our NHS was a “60 year mistake”

Below is a partial transcript of what Hannan says

"We’ve lived through this mistake; we’ve lived through this mistake for 60 years now… the reality is it hasn’t worked. It’s made people iller.

"We spend a lot of money and we get very bad results, you look at survival rates for cancer or for heart disease we are well down on all the leagues. We have very few Doctors.

"We disincentivise people from practising medicine in this country. A lot of our best and brightest Doctors emigrate. A lot of them go to North America because there’s no market."

To dismiss Hannan as a crank would be a mistake when you consider the following facts about Daniel Hannan.

• He is the Conservative number one Euro candidate for the South East
• He left the EPP centre right grouping in Europe after likening the German President of the European Parliament to Hitler, and Cameron’s Tories followed him.

John Prescott MP has produced a Video Blog in response

So come on Cllr Leah Fraser, tell the people of the Wirral where you stand on Hannan’s comments, do you back him or you call on David Cameron to sack him?

Help Save The NHS From The Tories