A good Labour council?

Labour leader Ed Miliband launched his party’s local election campaign today saying he was ‘proud’ of the way Labour councils' had reacted to the cuts and promoting ‘good’ Labour councillors who were making difficult decisions.

This can only be described as an unusual take on the reality, but sadly very much in line with their view that spending cuts are actually avoidable.

So how does this view shape up to the reality? In Labour’s flagship Southwark – snatched by a whisker on general election day from the Lib Dems – they recently passed their budget, cutting (among others) - five play centres, 12 lollipop ladies, old peoples’ lunch clubs, the mobile and housebound library services and old peoples day centres. All valued front line services to the vulnerable. And yet they managed to add £5 million to its healthy (Lib Dem inherited) £86 million reserves.

I can’t think of a clearer example of politically motivated cuts designed to scare the elderly and vulnerable while squirreling away vast sums for pre election bribes.

But what about those ‘good’ Labour councillors that Mili minor is so proud of?

Well there was Labour councillor Evrim Laws – thrown off the council on the day before polling day in 2010 for failing to attend any meetings in a sixth month period. But this didn’t prevent her claiming more than £10,000 in allowances and expenses.

Then there’s Keadean Rhoden who was elected in May 2010, charged with benefit fraud (not for the first time) in June 2010, convicted in October 2010, and who finally resigned from the council in March 2011. Cost to the taxpayer of allowances = £7,500.

But it doesn’t end there – it moves on to the sinister.

Blogging Labour Cllr Stephen Govier forgot to tell his Labour colleagues while being approved as a candidate about his three year jail term in the US for shooting someone in the head in an apparently drug related shooting. Cllr Govier remains a councillor in Camberwell and Peckham – one of the UK’s drug and gun crime hotspots – claiming his annual allowance of £10,500.

And last but certainly not least there is now ex-Cllr John Friary who resigned from the council (and its cabinet) in January 2011 after being arrested on child sex grooming charges. As a full time executive councillor he was paid more than £40,000 on top of his £10,500 allowance.

So there you have it – a tale of deceit, fraud, gun crime and child sex. Is this what Ed Miliband means by ‘good’ Labour councils?

Clegg: Liberal vigilantism is dead

Nick Clegg has spoken about the Libya crisis. In Mexico (where he is leading a trade mission) he pointedly said "Liberal vigilantism is dead. Law-abiding liberal interventionism is not."

Now who could he have been talking about with this implication that previous interventions may have been illegal?

Scots football fans in non-racism shock

The fan who threw an inflatable banana at Brazilian starlet Neymar on Sunday's friendly between Brazil and Scotland has been revealed to be firstly, not Scottish, secondly supporting Brazil and thirdly not a racist.

In crying wolf Neymar rather gave the game away by saying:

"They were jeering me a lot, even when I was about to kick the penalty the entire stadium was jeering."

I am not sure a football crowd has ever watched a penalty taken in silence - maybe Brazilian fans are more restrained?

Carman withdraws from London Mayor race

Dominic Carman has withdrawn from the race to be London mayor.

Commenting on this blog he says:

"Given other commitments, I have reached the conclusion that I cannot financially afford to run an effective campaign as the Lib Dem candidate for Mayor. Regrettably, I will therefore not be putting my name forward when the selection procedure formally restarts in May. Having spoken to Mike Tuffrey and others yesterday, I am convinced that he will make an excellent candidate and I will be giving him my support in whatever way I can, should he decide to run, which I sincerely hope he does.

Thank you for your support

Dominic"

Ed Miliband - the alternative Conservative?

The idea that the consequences of a mild tightening in fiscal policy can be compared to liberation struggles would be laughable if it wasn't so insulting to people who actually suffered with their lives and liberty.

But that's indeed the message Mili minor wanted to convey to the thronged masses of the downtrodden and oppressed um above average earners with publicly subsidised final salary pensions at the whinge fest in central London today.

But the real question is that given the marchers clearly contain huge numbers of well educated people in good jobs why they didn't see through the vacuousness of the 'Alternative' they were marching for.

If you check out their website they say: 'We do not set out a detailed policy mix' and 'It even makes sense to borrow more in the short-term if that encourages enough economic growth' as part of their section on discovering the alternatives.

So no alternative from the 'March for the alternative' other than a hope for more of the same.

So there you have it - the new conservatives: Mili minor's Labour.

Friday favourite

Edinburgh's finest (and most underrated) punk band shows how its done. Don't worry about the picture but turn up the volume.



I once bumped into Faye Fife in a sandwich shop in Tollcross...

Clegg's microphone slip tease...

Channel 4 news reports Nick Clegg has been caught out saying slightly indiscrete things while miked up.

In as much as we know Clegg and Cameron get on on a personal level anyway it doesn't reveal a lot. But it is however this very closeness (and its reporting) that is damaging and one of the reasons the Labour attacks on the Lib Dems as Tory stooges have had such resonance.

If the Lib Dems are to repatriate that anti-Tory chunk of Lib Dem support that has currently sought a home in Labour - a few off camera indescretions from Clegg that attack the Tories would be welcome.

More budget alarm clock nonsense from Clegg

Just received an e-mail from Nick Clegg about the budget. It highlights some of the good things about the budget - increases in personal allowances, green investment, clamping down on Tory backbenchers er non-doms etc.

But it continues with the utterly excreable use of 'alarm clock Britain'. This is a phrase of stunning uselessness. It is so poorly devised it comes across as insulting, aloof and out of touch – the sort of desperate clever-dicked attempt that the minders of Gordon Brown tried but which spectacularly backfired and made him see even more removed from reality than he actually was. It is so bad it doesn’t even get laughed at in the pub – it raises hackles.

Clegg is better than this. When given the platform he can talk directly and engagingly to people without spin and the sort of garbling of language that these frightfully clever policy wonks and PR gurus seem to think help. It doesn’t - it gets in the way and further damages Clegg's already shredded reputation.

There is a simple test in these matters. Would your average Focus editor grace it on their pages? If the answer is no then don’t do it. And I know of no Focus editor who is prepared to grace this nonsense in print.

Stop it now Nick.

Budget 'giving with one hand and taking with the other'

Ed Miliband's pre-prepared attack on the budget was very keen to stress that it was 'giving with one hand and taking away with the other'. He claimed 'It's the classic Tory con.'

Ed Balls has been touring the TV studios saying similar.

Yet isn't this simply a definition of a revenue neutral budget?

And given the budgets his party produced over the last 13 years were giving to the current generation with one hand and taking it from future generations with the other - a few revenue neutral budgets along the way would have been a good thing.

Exclusive - leaked preview of Labour's budget response

A document has come into my hands purporting to be Labour's response to this afternoon's budget.

And here is what it says Mili minor is planning to say:

"Too fast, too deep.

It's just like buying a house. You don't pay it back in five years.

Hard working families.

Borrow to create jobs.

Growth strategy. Jobs strategy.

Idealogically driven cuts. Worse than Thatcher.

Oh did I mention hard working families?"

I have to say although it's Miliband's job to respond the content has a reek of Balls about it.