Ed Miliband's insult to the voters of Scotland

Yesterday was Scottish Labours conference, if you missed it, it's understandable as media coverage was lower than that of other Scottish Parties because Labour chose to have their Autumn one covered in more detail.

Maybe Ed Miliband realised that with hardly anyone watching, he could say whatever he wanted?

So, despite the fact that in their thirteen years of government, of which Ed Miliband was part, Labour sold off Britain's gold at a twenty year low price, offered Britain's pensioners a miserly and insulting 75p increase, failed to link the basic state pension to earnings, oversaw a £10 million tax credit bungle, insulted people by doubling the basic rate of tax from 10p to 20p, let bankers run riot, oversaw £3 billion of benefits being overpaid and took us into an illegal war in Iraq.

They also left no money in Liam Byrne MP's own words and left us saddled with paying interest payments of £120 million per day on their debts!

So, what were Ed Milibands words of wisdom to the voters of Scotland?

Hitting out at the Tory-Lib Dem coalition, Mr Miliband told the conference:

"I have never wanted this to be a five-year government because of the damage it will do.


"And when people ask me, 'what are you going to do to reverse things in 2015', I say 'we can't wait until then'.

"So let's use these elections to give us the best chance of stopping it going to the full term."

Sorry?  Mr Miliband, I hate to tell you this, but it appears your advisers forgot to mention that the Scottish Parliament elections on May 5th (or May 6th in Dunfermline according to Labour) have nothing to do with removing the coalition government as voted for in last years election.

The Scottish Parliament election is about voting for your local and regional MSPs (use both of your votes) and who then forms the Scottish Government.

Don't be so patronising and rude to the Scottish voters a d insult them that they should make this a vote on the coalition because you lost last year.  Isn't it time you stopped blaming the voters for voting you and your party out of office?

I realise you blamed the previous Tory government for most of the thirteen years you were in power, but they rejected you and your party last May.  Get over it.

As red Ed mentioned the coalition, let me just mention four of the achievements made by the new coalition government because of the Liberal Democrats being part of it (in no particular order) in just ten months;

1. The link between pensions and earnings, scrapped by Margaret Thatcher, was restored in the Coalition’s first budget. The annual increase in the state pension will be protected by a ‘triple lock’ - the rise will be in line with earnings, prices or a 2.5% increase, whichever is the greater.

2. We have scrapped the ID card programme. The ID card database was publicly destroyed on 11th February 2011.

3. In June’s emergency budget we increased the rate of Capital Gains Tax to 28% for higher rate taxpayers while keeping it at 18% for basic rate taxpayers. This will raise an extra £1bn and end the disgraceful situation of bankers paying a lower rate of tax than their cleaners.

4. In June’s emergency budget, we raised the tax threshold by £1,000, lifting 880,000 low earners out of tax completely (from this April). It will increase each year of the Coalition Government until it reaches £10,000, which will lift an additional 3 million people out of tax altogether.

In Scotland Tavish Scott fought for local Post Offices to receive over £1million support, last year 50 of Scotland's Post Offices developed their business thanks to the Post Office diversification funds, a further £1 million has gone into the fund for this year.

Other concessions made to the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament budget include:


· Additional funding for FE bursaries of £15 million, spread across 2010-2011-12 to provide additional student support for current student numbers.

· Additional funding of £8 million in 2011-12 that would support an additional 1,200 college places and associated student support.

· 1,500 additional Modern Apprenticeships, including 500 places for the renewables sector, at a cost of £2 million

· 2,000 additional flexible training opportunities

That is what the the voters of Scotland are looking for, solutions for Scotland, not a power grab as Ed Miliband has suggested.

Ed Miliband is forced into a reshuffle Balls-up

Veteran Labour politician  Alan Johnson MP has resigned today as the Shadow Chancellor for personal reasons after just three and a half months.

In a statement, Alan Johnson MP said:

"I have decided to resign from the shadow cabinet for personal reasons to do with my family."

Today's announcement follows several recent gaffes by Alan Johnson when discussing tax and economic matters, including a recent in an interview when didn't know the rate of National Insurance paid by employers!

Rumours are rife in Westminster about why Johnson has gone.  Guido has more details.

So, Ed Miliband is forced into reshuffling his titanic team - Alan Johnson is replaced by Ed Balls, previously the shadow home secretary.  Mr Balls' wife, Yvette Cooper, takes over at home affairs, Douglas Alexander becomes shadow foreign secretary and Tessa Jowell becomes shadow Cabinet Office minister.

So, Balls gets a promotion - Gordon Brown's left hand man gets what he wants.

Liam Byrne, the Labour MP who left a note on his desk in the treasury saying "there is no money left" when Labour were kicked out of Government is made shadow work and pensions secretary.

It is somewhat astounding that someone who can be so flippant finds themselves promoted.

The other strange thing about this new look cabinet, it is just like the Gordon Brown cabinet, full of people denying they had anything to do with forcing us into the position we are in now where we face paying £120million per day in interest alone, enough to build a new school every hour!

Stephen Williams, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, commented earlier on the resignation of Alan Johnson MP:

“I wish Alan Johnson good luck for the future.

“The decision to appoint Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor shows that the Labour Party is now determined to carry on with the Gordon Brown economic plan that caused so much trouble for this country.

“Ed Balls isn’t just a deficit denier, he’s a deficit enthusiast.”

Well done Stephen Williams MP, great line.

Labour's one trick pony Ed Miliband appeals to Lib Dems (again) - my response

Ed Miliband takes over the leadership of the Labour Party thanks to the Union votes after the Labour MPs and members turned their back on him and he declares this the new generation Labour and that New Labour is dead.

Since then he has denied the last thirteen years happened and blames the Liberal Democrats and Conservative coalition government for absolutely everything he can.

Including the introduction of student tuition fees, the disgraceful 75p pension increase, the complete waste of money introducing ID Cards, the fingerprinting of children, the illegal war in Iraq, doubling the 10p basic rate of income tax, selling off the UKs gold at the lowest price for 20 years, the major tax credit bungle, not standing up to the bankers and leaving us to pay off debts including £120 million per day on interest alone.

Now he has scrapped all of their policies and swapped it for a blank sheet of paper.

He has appealed to Liberal Democrat members and voters to join him and his lack of vision, not once, but four times in as many months.

He claimed today that thousands of Liberal Democrats had joined Labour since May, yet thousands of Liberal Democrats have not left since May, in fact we have seen an increase in our membership so more nonsense from him.

Philip Hammond MP, the Transport Secretary (Conservative) said;

"Most Liberal Democrats understand that we have to address the fundamental economic challenges this country now faces before we can build the progressive society that we all want to live in and until Ed Miliband has a credible plan for dealing with the deficit he's not in a position to make a pitch to anybody,"

That is exactly the point, the other option in May was the supposed rainbow coalition, but Labour included caveats such as they would work with the SNP for example, so that option was doomed before it started.

 Yes, the Liberal Democrats could have not bothered with either party and left the Conservatives to operate as a minority government, but given the childish behaviour of the Labour Party they would have voted against everything they ever proposed meaning nothing would have happened and we would have faced a second general election in 2010.

I don't think the voters would have stood for that either.

Yes, I agree with Nick - going into coalition government was the right way forward for the country and the media and Labourites are gloating over our national poll ratings of 8/9% yet on Thursday night in Oldham East & Saddleworth we once again polled over 30%, not just a poll but real votes in real ballot boxes.

So Ed, we are all getting bored of your repeated requests to join your blank page party, we remember your record over the 13 years despite you repeatedly forgetting about it - you are a one trick pony and your trick of asking Lib Dems to join your party is wearing thin. 

Ed you need a new trick, maybe you should do the same as your Deputy, stay silent and say nothing until you have something to say.

Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats in by-election meltdown?

No, we are not. 

Despite the best efforts of the United Kingdom's media pack, the Labour Party with their new leader Ed "I know nothing of the last 13 years" Miliband and even some whingers in our own party to destroy us during the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election, they failed.  They all failed.

Our share of the vote went up, only a small increase, but it went up.

Am I disappointed?

Of course I am.  I'm gutted for Elwyn Watkins and every single one of the campaign team, who gave their all, trying new techniques and some of the old favourites to take the seat from Labour.

The public never really see and understand the sheer determination and work rate party workers and volunteers put into a by-election - yes, for many of us it does become personal, but that's because we believe. 

We believe in our candidates, we believe in our policies, maybe not all of them but then none of us ever join an organisation because we believe in every aspect of that organisation do we?

I joined the Chelsea FC Supporters Club because I passionately believe in my team, I don't agree with what Roman Abramovich is currently doing at the club, especially getting rid of Wilko or the fact the players have become a little nonchalant.

Politics is exactly the same, I don't agree with some of the policy decisions made now we are in coalition the same as I disagreed with some when I started delivering leaflets twenty plus years ago, but it is a compromise, just like life.

The majority of voters in Oldham East & Saddleworth didn't vote last night and that makes me angry, people have died in this country to ensure we have a vote within our democracy and yet some people never vote - often the loudest complainers afterwards and that is a sad state of affairs.  I hope that changes after May once the referendum on fair votes has taken place, a great step forward in reforming our politics.

The media have been almost obsessed with the Liberal Democrats during this by-election, predicting doom, gloom, the collapse of our vote, the party going into meltdown, Clegg's resignation, the collapse of the coalition, the end of the world.  Okay, not the last one, but that was the general direction of their mood, spiralling downwards.

Once again they were wrong.

When will the media start reporting on the news and using facts not guess work and their own wild predictions?

The Conservatives suffered the worst in this by-election, losing over 7,000 votes since May, a drop of over 13% in the share of the vote.

Also, a note of warning for Ed Miliband who no doubt is going to be smug about the result - just remember Ed, more people voted for the coalition in this by-election than voted for Labour.  You aren't out of the woods yet.

You may have forgotten what Labour did to this great country and the people who live here over the last thirteen years, but they haven't.

The by-election had been called after disgraced former MP, Labour's Phil Woolas was found guilty by two High Court judges of knowingly lying to voters in a last-ditch bid to hold his seat at the General Election.


A mixed week for Miliband - one former MP jailed, one found guilty of fraud and an election hold.


The result of the Oldham East and Saddleworth Parliamentary by-election:


Lab 14,718
LD Elwyn Watkins 11,160
Conservatives 4,481
UKIP 2,029
BNP 1,560
Green 530
Monster Raving Loony 145
English Democrats 144
Bus Pass Elvis 67
Pirate 96
48.06% turnout

Labour HOLD.

My response to Ed Miliband's request to join him and Labour - their lies, hypocrisy and arrogance

Labour really do not learn, do they?

Repeatedly, various Labour folk are inviting Lib Dems, sometimes angry Lib Dems to join the Labour Party.

Now Ed Miliband, their new leader (who has been around and part of the previous government for years) is trying to entice Lib Dems to join him in the new re branded Labour Party.  We've heard all this nonsense before though.

Ed Miliband has already laid out the welcome mat for Lib Dems back in August, it didn't work back then.

His brother David, also tried to invite me and other Lib Dems in September to join the Labour Party - you can read my response to him HERE.

Before that we had Derek Simpson of the UNITE Union trying to get Lib Dems to rip up their membership cards and join Labour, I explained to him why I wouldn't be doing so.

This is the Labour Party that they wanted me to join, the same Labour Party who;

through their reckless borrowing have left us with huge debts and daily payments of £120 million (yes, that is correct per day), that's just to cover the interest payments on their loans!

think it's acceptable for their deputy leader, Harriet Harman MP to personally insult other MPs!

are close to bankruptcy themselves with debts of £20million!

were proud to introduce tuition fees for students!

were complete hypocrites over NHS Direct - Labour planned to scrap it and replace it with a 111 service yet criticised the coalition for doing the same!

took us to an illegal war in Iraq wasting billions and billions of our taxes!

raised pensions by just a mere 75p a week!

So, when I think back over the last thirteen years and the damage Labour did to this country, no, I will not rip up my membership card - in fact I have just renewed my membership, with an increase in my monthly direct debit - nor will I leave the party and join Labour.

Already the Lib Dems in Government have achieved;

restoring the earnings link to pensions

taking 900,000 people out of paying income tax from April 2011

the ending of child detention

the scrapping of the third runway at Heathrow airport

Four major achievments in just six months, you can read more about what the Liberal Democrats have achieved through being part of the Coalition Government HERE.

The more Labour target us to join them, the more they target our voters the more determined we will become to fight their lies, their hypocrisy and their arrogance.

The other 49 Labour MPs who want to be in the Shadow Cabinet

Here is the full list of the 49 Labour MPs who want to be in the shadow cabinet. Labour's MPs will vote to elect 19 of them, and then, the new leader Ed Miliband will choose the jobs they get.

Some of them I have never heard of and then there are some of the old school such as Alan Johnson, who I thought was taking a back seat.

There is in fact 50, but Harriet Harman is automatically on the list so, don't panic.

1. Diane Abbott
2. Douglas Alexander
3. Ed Balls
4. Hilary Benn
5. Roberta Blackman-Woods
6. Ben Bradshaw
7. Kevin Brennan
8. Chris Bryant
9. Andy Burnham
10. Liam Byrne
11. Vernon Coaker
12. Yvette Cooper
13. Mary Creagh
14. Wayne David
15. John Denham
16. Angela Eagle
17. Maria Eagle
18. Rob Flello
19. Caroline Flint
20. Mike Gapes
21. Barry Gardiner
22. Helen Goodman
23. Peter Hain
24. David Hanson
25. Tom Harris
26. John Healey
27. Meg Hillier
28. Huw Irranca-Davies
29. Kevan Jones
30. Alan Johnson
31. Tessa Jowell
32. Eric Joyce
33. Barbara Keeley
34. Sadiq Khan
35. David Lammy
36. Chris Leslie
37. Ivan Lewis
38. Ian Lucas
39. Fiona Mactaggart
40. Pat McFadden
41. Ann McKechin
42. Alun Michael
43. Jim Murphy
44. Gareth Thomas
45. Emily Thornberry
46. Stephen Timms
47. Stephen Twigg
48. Shaun Woodward
49. Iain Wright

Well, only 19 of these will get a job in the Shadow Cabinet, 30 will be unhappy.  Let's see how far Ed Miliband goes introducing the new generation, I'm certainly not holding my breath.

David Miliband quits conference; Shadow Cabinet next?

So, David Miliband has quit the Labour Conference early following a spat with Harriet Harman.

Will David Miliband even bother to serve in his brother's cabinet, the signs are not looking good, with only 19 hours until nominations close there is no sign of any paperwork from David, now back home in Primrose Hill, London.

Although David stayed in Manchester for Ed's speech, he was spotted by an ITV camera apparently snapping at Harriet Harman.


As Ed Miliband criticised the war in Iraq at the podium, David turned to the party's deputy and said: "You voted for it, why are you clapping?"

Harriet Harman apparently replied: "I am clapping because as you know, I am supporting him."

The Ed versus David saga is not going away and it will take labour's best spin doctors to sort this one out.

Ed Miliband MP lays out welcome mat for Lib Dems and concedes defeat in leadership race

This evening I have begun to wonder if the Labour leadership race had finished because Ed Miliband MP seems to have a lot of spare time on his hands talking to Liberal Democrats.

Instead of making up stupid stories perhaps he should concentrate on persuading Labour Members to vote for him.

Aha.

Now I get it, he is admitting he has lost already and therefore conceding defeat in the Labour leadership race hence why he now has time to start talking to the media about made up stories about the Liberal Democrats.

Yesterday we had the nonsense about the supposed defection to Labour of Charles Kennedy MP - to which Charles has responded that he would;

"go out of this world feet first with my Lib Dem membership card in my pocket"

Today we have Ed Miliband MP saying that;

"I also know that there is widespread unhappiness among Liberal Democrat MPs. I think the idea that everyone is hunky-dory with what's going on is wrong.


"I am not going to start predicting who is going to defect and when they might do so, but I think there is a real chance for us to show that this coalition is going in the wrong direction as far as Lib Dem MPs are concerned - and as I say, the welcome mat is out."

So I am therefore not surprised that Ed Miliband MP, David Miliband MP and even Derek Simpson of Unite have all tried to intimidate and cajole Liberal Democrats to join Labour.

I am however amazed that any of these three chaps have the gall to attempt to persuade Lib Dems to defect given their behaviour towards not only Charles Kennedy  during the Iraq war but the Party over the last thirteen years, but then when did hypocrisy ever stop the Labour Party or Unions before.

Just look at the illegal war in Iraq that Labour MPs supported and voted for and yet now those in the Labour leadership race are distancing themselves from the decision to go into war. Hypocrites.

Let us also remember that it was Labour that stopped the rainbow coalition government being formed because of their refusal to work with the SNP, also in reality bringing so many parties together would not have had a balanced or steady work flow to achieve anything whereas the grown up approach of both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives has already seen dividends.

Also, how many Lib Dems would have been unhappy about us forming a coalition with Labour/SNP/Plaid/Green/DUP etc etc?

Don't get me wrong, I am not in favour of the Conservative Party (nor ever will I be) and I will be doing everything in my power over the next nine/ten months to beat them in every constituency and region across Scotland to get Tavish Scott as First Minister and the Liberal Democrats as the Government of Scotland.

There will be policy announcements and changes that my moral compass doesn't agree with, but very few people join a political party because of just one individual thing, as even Ed Miliband very well knows.

I wasn't overly happy about the VAT increase - but I would rather justify that than the murder of innocent Iraqi's.

I am a Liberal Democrat, proud of being so and proud that we are in government now achieving real results like scrapping ID cards, ending child detention, voting reform, an elected second chamber and taking 900,000 out of paying any income tax for starters.

I am however, very unhappy that we are having to waste time sorting out and paying for the Labour Party's frivolous attitude to spending public money (and their own) over the last thirteen years.
So, no I won't be wiping my feet on Ed Miliband's welcome mat, he can shove that request up where the sun don't shine!

Ed Balls MP considering quitting the Labour leadership race

The Telegraph is running a story that Ed Balls is considering quitting the Labour leadership race because Britain's biggest union, Unite has backed Ed Miliband MP.

A source at Unite, which has 950,000 members who are eligible to vote in the leadership election, said: "The discussion before the vote was very much whether it should be Ed Miliband or Ed Balls. Ed Miliband won so clearly because it was thought he was the candidate best placed to be able to defeat his brother."

Ed Balls had been hoping to win Unite's backing, especially given that his close ally is Charlie Whelan who is Unite's political director – but only secured four votes compared to Ed Miliband's twenty four.

Photo: BLOOMBERG

The decision has left Ed Balls contemplating withdrawing from the fray and backing either Ed Miliband or his brother David, the former foreign secretary, who remains the bookies' favourite.

The fight now looks to be a straight two horse race between David Miliband and his brother Ed, after Ed Miliband secured the backing of three of the four largest unions, Unite, Unison and the GMB.
Each has well over 100 nominations from constituency parties – David with 151 and Ed with 140 – well ahead of the number obtained by the three other candidates, Mr Balls, Andy Burnham and Diane Abbott.

However, a senior Labour source said: "It's hard to see where Ed Balls's campaign goes from here. He faces some tough choices in the next few days."

Ladbrokes has cut their odds on Ed Miliband winning the leadership battle from 7/4 to 6/4 after yesterday's result amid a general sense of momentum building up behind the younger sibling. While David Miliband remains the favourite, his odds were lengthened from 4/7 to 4/6.
Ed Miliband last week won the key support of ex-leader Lord Kinnock as well as the backing of Baroness (Elizabeth) Smith, widow of the late John Smith, Lord Kinnock's successor as party leader.

John McDonnell withdraws from Labour leadership battle

John McDonnell has withdrawn from the Labour leadership battle with a matter of hours before nominations close.

John McDonnell had just 16 nominations at the time of his withdrawl, less than half the number required to go through to be included on the ballot paper.

John McDonnell is hoping that by adding his 16 nominations to the 11 that Diane Abbott already has that she can then get the final 6 needed to go through onto the ballot paper.

Ed Balls, David Miliband and Ed Miliband all have at least the 33 nominations required and Andy Burnham is now claiming that he also has 33 nominations.

Explaining why he was pulling out of the race, John McDonnell said:

"I stood for the Labour leadership as the candidate of the Left and trade union movement so that there could be a proper debate about Labour's future in which all the wings of the party were fully represented.

"It is now clear that I am unlikely to secure enough nominations and so I am withdrawing in the hope that we can at least secure a woman on the ballot paper."

Yesterday, acting Labour leader Harriet Harman said she was nominating Diane Abbott because she did not want to see a "men-only" contest where there has been wide spread criticism within the Labour party of the similarities between the perceived three main candidates, Ed Balls, Ed Miliband and David Miliband, who are already through to the next stage of the election - because they are all Oxford-educated men in their 40s, who worked as political advisers before becoming MPs and then cabinet ministers.


Let's see if Diane Abbott pulls it off.