Danny Alexander in North Kingston

This morning, Chief Secretary, Danny Alexander visited North Kingston, with Parliamentary hopeful, Robin Meltzer, to talk to local businesses - including Pascalle of the Kings Road Cafe and Jacqueline Lott of the North Kingston Focus Team.  Robin has launched a campaign against the corporate tax avoidance that means firms like Starbucks pay a lower tax rate than local cafes.

Remembering Keith Floyd

Keith Floyd's funeral was three years ago today.  Floyd was a punk chef - mates with the Stranglers - and his posh demenour betrayed his humble origins.  Which is probably why he was able to get on and annoy with equal measure a wide variety of people.

But he was a genius - and the man who taught me to cook - or at least throw ingredients in a pot while having a 'slurp'.  Here he is at his best - exploring artisan cuisine in humble surroundings (in the black country)...

On his death the other punk chef Marco Pierre White said, "The thing which is very sad is a little piece of Britain today died which will never be replaced. He was a beautiful man, his ability to inspire people to cook just with his words and the way he did things was extraordinary. If you look at TV chefs today they don't have his magic. It's a very, very, very sad day for my industry and secondly for a nation."

Living on words review of the year

It's Hogmanay, so it's time to look back on 2011. So in the tradition of all good topical TV and radio programmes (and cos it's cheap and requires little creative input), here's my review of 2011.

In January I had lunch with Cicero and we discussed Estonia's flat tax and what it might mean if introduced in the UK. The post recieved more comments than any other during the year.

In February some misguided Lib Dems decided to work with Labour - here was my response

In March I suggested an alternative to Lembit Opik as Lib Dem candidate for London Mayor - only to be rebuffed two weeks later.

April saw the death of one of the country's finest footballers of the 40s and 50s - Eddie Turnbull - remembered here and also by the BBC on the oxymoronic Sports Personality of the Year.

There was a glimmer of hope for British liberalism in May - despite the Lib Dem rout at the local elections and the catastrophic failure of the AV campaign. In Brockworth, Glos, the cheese rollers went ahead with their annual festival despite the attentions of the local constabulary.

In June it was no surprise that the MP who had issued a superinjunction was litigious chip off the old block - Zac Goldsmith.

July saw reactionary blogger, Guido Fawkes, lose what little credibility as a serious political player evaporate as he promoted a pro-hanging petition.

In August Edinburgh's tram project was on, then it was off and then it was on again.

September saw the party conference season and my advice to Nick Clegg was, needless to say, not taken up.

In October the Libyan uprising reached its grisly conclusion, despite some high profile support for the ex-dictator.

As the campaign for the Coombe Vale by-election hotted up in November, this blog wondered whether Zac Goldsmith would make good his promises to the Electoral Commission to reuse items he'd failed to declare the full cost for at the general election.

In December Ed Miliband received a verbal dagger, that would have made him wonder who his friends were.

Happy New Year and see you all again in 2012.

Where now for the Scottish Tories?

The news that David Cameron's candidate has won the Leadership of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party could prove a watershed for the party and Scottish politics.

For the best part of a quarter of century the Tories have been considered toxic in Scotland - and part of the Lib Dems current struggle north of the border is simply our association with them in coalition at Westminster - a body increasingly marginal to the lives of most Scots.

Over the years the Tories have tried almost everything to re-establish themselves - more right wing policies, less right wing policies, blank sheets of paper and open policy making, supporting Alex Salmond and the SNP, opposing Alex Salmond and the SNP and none of it has worked.

Ruth Davidson represents more of this same headless chickenry - running around hoping that they randomly stumble across a game changer. Murdo Fraser at least recognised that a strategic rethink was required - even if he didn't communicate how a new Scottish right of centre party that took the Westminster Tory whip would (and could) be considered any different from the current arrangement.

But from what I hear his defeat has left those who want to try a radically different strategy disillusioned and with little hope of ever winning the argument in the confines of the current Scottish Tory straightjacket.

Cicero - who I had a pleasant, albeit brief lunch with earlier this week, in an interesting post, reckons this could be the end of the once great Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. Whatever the outcome - politics north of the border is set to get even more interesting.

Where the School Food Trust can stick their lunchbox...

An organisation called the School Food Trust has issued a report critising the content of the average school lunch box and by association the average parents who fill them.

Instead of sandwiches and a bag of crisps they suggest parents should include such delicacies as:

- Butternut squash soup with wholegrain bread
- Cous cous with roasted vegetables and chickpeas
- Wholegrain pasta salad with tomatoes, green beans and sweetcorn in green pesto sauce
- Low-fat cream cheese on wholegrain cracker with grapes

Now apart from the logistical problems of trying to get a six year old to safely transport soup to school, one wonders if those at the Schools Food Trust have actually tried to feed said child cous cous, chickpeas or wholegrain crackers?

This sort of out of touch nannying simply raises the hackles of hard pressed parents and turns the attention to the people and the organisation that can come up with this nonsense.

And being a publicly funded body they conveniently provide their statement of accounts on line.

And in it we find in 2010/11 the Schools Food Trust received more than £11.5 million from the public purse. Its Chief Executive, Judy Haragon, was paid £95,000 with a pension worth £143,000 - £35,000 more than 2010. In total its senior staff were paid a cool quarter of a million and they still found a £15,000 bung to retain the services of a celebrity chef.

Given the state of the public finances, cutting needless spending is a prerequisite. And it seems to me the Schools Food Trust is a pretty good place to start.

Loopy Lorna's closure mystery

The beeb reports that Edinburgh's (if not the UK's) finest tearoom has closed suddenly in somewhat mysterious circumstances.

Loopy Lorna's was always a highight of our visits to Edinburgh.

Dining car axe and the new elitism

News that from Monday the last dining cars on Britain's railways will be no more is a retrograde step.

One of the great things about travelling to Scotland on the East Coast Main Line was the opportunity of enjoying a fine meal over several hours. The hiatus so created transformed a four and half hour train journey into something far shorter and provided a welcome opportunity to find out more about your fellow travellers over a digestif.

The fact that you could do this on a cheap standard class ticket was an added bonus and one that meant the dining car was a more socially interesting place than other parts of the train. For example the last time I dined on board I sat opposite Dame Tani Grey Thompson.

It's clear the reason is financial - the east coast catering operation lost £20 million last year. But I can't help feeling if that's the case then they should simply increase prices. But the bigger reason is the space created allows them to cram even more paying passengers on board.

Travelling on an east coast train will be a more elitist experience as a result of this decision with only first class passengers enjoying a meal - which if it is anything like Virgin's fare will become indistinguishable from a microwaved airline meal within months.

It's funny that under all those years of the service being run by private sector operators the dining cars survived, but it took the now nationalised operator to wield the axe.

By way of conclusion - an east coast dining car features in probably the greatest film opening sequence ever (and greatest British gangster film) - Get Carter. I'm not sure it would work so well if Michael Caine wandered down and bought a sandwich from the buffet car...

Lunch and flat tax

Lunch today with top Lib Dem blogger and Baltophile - Cicero.

As usual he was very keen to impress on me the positives of all things Estonian - including their system of 30% flat tax.

I've never been convinced by the proponents of flat tax - usually because they are a bunch of right wing nut jobs or US tea party loons. But Cicero made the case that it actually can be progressive (in the true use of the word) and is fearsomely efficient - the 'fiscal drag' (the amount of money lost through collecting tax) is miniscule as a result of its simplicity.

The key is to have a sufficiently high tax rate and a sufficiently large tax free allowance. For example if the UK introduced a 40% flat tax on all earnings over £20,000 (earnings up to this level - approx 80% of average earnings - would be tax free) the marginal rates of tax effective overall tax rate would be as follows:

£15,000 = 0
£25,000 = 8%
£40,000 = 20%
£100,000 = 36%

And it would be much much simpler to collect. The complexity of the current tax regime is reflected by the fact the Revenue and Customs currently employs nearly 75,000 people (not all obviously involved in tax collection) and spends £39 billion each year. (Source HMRC accounts)

Given it can be progressive, is clearly far more efficient to collect and results in government getting more revenue bang for its buck - it's time the Lib Dems and the coalition look seriously at a flat tax for the UK.

We also talked about Estonia's land tax, but that's another story...