http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/ Daily Post lobby correspondent Rob Merrick with the Westminster latest en Copyright 2008 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:49:05 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss THE journalists were confident of beating the Labour MPs in the annual conference football match - until their "ringer" walked in as I was lacing up my boots. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/yHSlQR_apkI/my_man_of_the_conference_bryan.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/my_man_of_the_conference_bryan.html Labour Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:49:05 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/my_man_of_the_conference_bryan.html IT'S an ill wind that blows nobody any good and the hurricane that swept through the financial markets has proved a godsend for our beleaguered Prime Minister. Suddenly, Gordon Brown is no longer drowning but has clambered aboard the liferaft of attacking City of London greed and excess - that same greed and excess he indulged for a decade. Just as important, the Labour faithful have a new cause - taking on the "spivs and speculators" that have brought the banks to their knees - and a new line of attack against the Tories. ]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/eRh6L_M3sT8/gordon_brown_this_new_mood_won.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/gordon_brown_this_new_mood_won.html Labour Wed, 24 Sep 2008 17:44:32 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/gordon_brown_this_new_mood_won.html IF DAVID MILIBAND is secretly plotting to bring down Gordon Brown, then the strategy must be to lick the Prime Minister to death. That can be the only conclusion from the Foreign Secretary's showpiece conference speech yesterday when the leader- in-waiting was gushing in his praise - perhaps just a little too gushing. After all, two words are absent from almost every speech made in Manchester this week. They are 'Brown' and 'Gordon' - reflecting the widespread view that the unpopular PM is dragging down his party. ]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/mifzBvk_VQo/will_the_real_david_miliband_p.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/will_the_real_david_miliband_p.html Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:52:57 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/will_the_real_david_miliband_p.html JUST a few weeks ago, the Liberal Democrats unveiled a "Hit The North" campaign to pour staff and money into dozens of vulnerable Labour seats from the Mersey to the Tyne. Liverpool Wavertree and Warrington South were just two constituencies set to turn orange, party leader Nick Clegg vowed, as he exploited Gordon Brown's woes to the max. Now the same Mr Clegg has persuaded the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth to adopt a radical tax-cutting agenda blatantly designed to outflank the Tories and shore up votes in the South. . http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/TE5cvYAWrPs/is_nick_clegg_a_tory_hiding_be.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/is_nick_clegg_a_tory_hiding_be.html Lib Dems Lib Dems Wed, 17 Sep 2008 07:51:09 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/is_nick_clegg_a_tory_hiding_be.html BACK in the summer, when all other Labour MPs stayed silent, Knowsley North MP George Howarth was brave enough to tell Gordon Brown: "You are the problem." Now, after Mr Howarth became one of the first to wound the PM with his demand for a leadership contest, it can't be long before someone dubs him "The Knowsley Knife". Oooops, I just did. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/QP4UiAKnuBE/introducing_the_knowsley_knife.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/introducing_the_knowsley_knife.html Labour George Haworth Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:59:24 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/09/introducing_the_knowsley_knife.html Ministers and backbenchers who have seen their party slump to unthinkable depths of unpopularity believe recovery is impossible under a prime minister palpably struggling. They think the public has made up its mind that Mr Brown is not up to the job and nothing - not another relaunch, not a Cabinet reshuffle - can change that. Nothing illustrates that more starkly than losing a by-election in the east end of Glasgow - the last place, or so MPs thought, that voters would desert them. This is not just another bad poll, but real votes stacked against Labour. And if Scottish Mr Brown cannot win in working-class Scotland, where can he win? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/AgrucX0XZ6M/what_if_the_political_earthqua.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/what_if_the_political_earthqua.html Labour Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:45:30 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/what_if_the_political_earthqua.html WHEN Robin Cook’s conscience would not allow him to vote for the invasion of Iraq, he was forced to resign from the Cabinet and end his political career on the backbenches. There was no question of Tony Blair giving his front-bench colleagues a free vote on the war. They either accepted the principle of “collective responsibility�? – or they quit. Now Labour MPs will get a free vote on key aspects of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill – making it easier for lesbian couples to have fertility treatment, so-called “saviour siblings�? and, most contentiously, animal-human hybrid embryos. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/1_adP5scx-M/dithering_gordon_strikes_again.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/dithering_gordon_strikes_again.html Health climbdown embryos gordon brown Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:11:48 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/03/dithering_gordon_strikes_again.html WHEN Alistair Darling delivers his first Budget next month, there will be the usual stern warnings about the need to cap the pay of public sector workers. But, on two issues – the explosion in the pay of the richest in our society and their growing success in avoiding tax on it – the Chancellor will breathe not a word. The FTSE 100 chief executives enjoyed a 16% pay rise last year, and have doubled their earnings in the last five years to £3.17m, but Mr Darling will not demand “discipline�? from them. His position is that the stratospheric salaries of the mega-rich is a matter for them alone – despite all the evidence that the gross unfairness triggers growing anger in the workplace. It also blows out of the water that flagship pledge to end child poverty. Such poverty is measured against other incomes – incomes that are becoming more unequal – but still ministers are silent. It would not be so depressing if these multi-millionaires flooded the nation’s coffers with their taxes for better public services but, alas, the truth is dramatically different. Earlier this month, a study commissioned by the trade unions found that tax avoidance by the very wealthy cost the Treasury a staggering £13bn a year. That sum – enough to boost the education budget by 9%, or NHS spending by 5% – dwarfs the amount lost to benefit fraud, but receives next-to-no attention. Tax avoidance by the largest companies costs a further £12bn. Now, I have given up on ever hearing Gordon Brown, or his lieutenants, utter a word of criticism about boardroom pay. That’s “Old Labour�?, they shiver. But, surely, they want the privileged few to pay their taxes? If only because, if they don’t, the burden falls on the all-important middle-classes, who decide elections. So three cheers for Birkenhead MP Frank Field, a Labour MP who has more good ideas before breakfast than the entire Cabinet achieves in a month of slap-up dinners. Yesterday, Mr Field proposed a 10% tax hike on those earning more than £150,000 a year unless – like the richest in America – they pay back society for their good fortune by giving generously to charity. That, surely, is a message Mr Brown can sell to the middle-classes – or the “coping classes�?, as I saw them described the other day – without sounding like an evil tax-and-spend socialist? Sadly, despite meeting Mr Field six times recently to explore ways to “make full use of his talents�?, there is zero chance of the Prime Minister adopting any ideas from his old enemy in Birkenhead. There is no sign of hell freezing over yet. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/S-QRZNgjKZc/three_cheers_for_frank_field.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/02/three_cheers_for_frank_field.html Labour alastair darling frank field super-rich tax Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:16:50 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/02/three_cheers_for_frank_field.html ONCE upon a time, there was a Chancellor so disgusted by the gulf between rich and poor that he snatched £5.2bn from City “fat cats�? to put young people back to work. The windfall tax on the privatised utilities was wildly popular with a public angered by their huge profits and the New Deal programme it funded successfully slashed youth unemployment. It is hard to believe – after so many years of Labour bending over backwards to appease the City of London – but that Chancellor was Gordon Brown. Back in 1997, the privatisations of electricity, gas, water and telecoms were fresh in the memory – and their eye-watering profits were deemed unacceptable. Fast forward 11 years and the profits made by the energy companies, who are busy hiking their bills by up to 17%, attract similar condemnation. A fuel poverty watchdog says utility bills are more than 50% up on five years ago – a far bigger rise than has hit energy companies’ costs. Worse, the poorest are hit hardest, because the million lower-income households on pre-payment meters pay £140 a year more for gas and electricity than those using direct debit. Meanwhile, the scandal of pensioners and the poor shivering in their own homes creates legal – as well as moral – dilemmas for the Government. Ministers bravely set themselves a legal duty to end fuel poverty by 2010. That is now less likely to happen than the Premiership trophy ending up at Anfield. Yet, as the task gets harder, the cash to insulate homes dries up. Grants under the “Warm Front�? programme will be slashed by 25% between now and 2011. With the Government almost broke, if only there was a plan to raise billions of pounds that could reverse this shocking rise in the numbers unable to pay their fuel bills. Well, there is. Last month, Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of the energy regulator Ofgem, met Chancellor Alistair Darling to discuss this very problem. He proposed a windfall tax on the predicted £9bn profits of the electricity companies over the next five years – a suggestion that was said to have been received “coolly�?. How long ago 1997 seems. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/doiqbWCJU9A/how_gordon_brown_forgot_about.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/02/how_gordon_brown_forgot_about.html Labour chancellor fat cats gordon brown profits Sun, 10 Feb 2008 11:48:54 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/02/how_gordon_brown_forgot_about.html REPORTS condemning the Government for shackling power- starved local authorities arrive with a depressing frequency in this job. Opposition parties and think- tanks all make the same criticism – councils are stripped of any meaningful muscle and ministerial pledges to restore it are a mirage. So, what makes the latest study so notable is not its line of attack – “most disappointing�?, “lacking vision�?, “hobbling�? – but the people firing the shots. Because, this time, it is a Labour-dominated select committee, led by a normally ultra-loyal backbencher – so the Government must be behaving badly. Worse, this time local authorities are being betrayed over the funding mechanism that was supposed to throw a lifeline to the likes of the axed Merseytram scheme. Last October, Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that town halls would be able to levy a “supplementary business rate�?, to raise tens of millions of pounds for key projects. The idea is aimed specifically at accelerating transport schemes such as Merseytram, which appeared doomed in 2005 when the Government pulled the plug on £238m of funding. But, in the face of protests from the CBI and the British Chambers of Commerce, Mr Darling pledged “four levels of protection for business�?. Most notably, the rate will be limited to 2p in the £ – half the figure recommended in an independent study. Firms with a rateable value below £50,000 will be exempt, and a ballot required if the supplement is funding more than a third of the cost of a project. Now the communities and local government committee has delivered its verdict – and it pulls no punches. The committee is clearly furious that its own recommendations – no compulsory ballots, no cap on the SBR rate, exemptions to be decided by town halls – were dumped. Chairwoman Phyllis Starkey said: “It is in this failure to trust local authorities to take effective decisions, in partnership with local business, about the levying and use of local funds that the Government demonstrates its lack of vision. “We are dismayed that it proposes to hobble local authorities’ ability to raise sums which would enable them to make a meaningful contribution to the economic development of their area.�? Remember, this is the verdict of a Labour-dominated committee. Once again, ministers bow down to business – and local councils pay the price. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/5nvuQmekeYI/councils_pay_the_price_as_darl.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/02/councils_pay_the_price_as_darl.html Labour alastair darling councils tax Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:29:14 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/02/councils_pay_the_price_as_darl.html COMING from Surrey, it is difficult for Chris Grayling – the Tory “shadow minister for Liverpool�? – to make an impact, but surely no city MP can match this achievement? Mr Grayling once faced the terrifying Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee in a charity cricket match – and smashed the ball to the boundary. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/8Y0BjT3QQFQ/the_shadow_minister_for_liverp.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/the_shadow_minister_for_liverp.html Conservatives Tue, 29 Jan 2008 01:46:59 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/the_shadow_minister_for_liverp.html OUR MPs should pack away their hairshirts and vote themselves a proper pay rise tomorrow – ignoring the inevitable bad headlines. But, in return, MPs must find a way to trigger a Commons vote that would force Gordon Brown to also give police officers the pay rise they deserve. Tomorrow, the thumbscrews will be put on MPs on all sides to vote down the 2.56% rise recommended for them by the senior salaries review board. Yes, that’s right – 2.56%. Not “generous�?, or “inflation-busting�?, or any of he other false adjectives applied, but well below RPI (4%), used for most pay settlements. Yet the Prime Minister, and other party leaders, will demand that MPs exercise “discipline�? by voting themselves a 1.9% rise. Or, as it should be called, a pay cut. Mr Brown needs MPs to get him out of the hole he has dug for himself by forcing the police to settle for 1.9% – in defiance of an independent recommendation. The Prime Minister says this painful decision is necessary to keep inflation under control, but experts agree that is complete codswallop. Public sector pay does not drive inflation. It is salaries in the private sector – affecting the price of everything from cars to hair cuts and potatoes – that can hit the inflation rate. So, let’s not be fooled when Mr Brown says: “Nobody would like to pay the police more than I do, but we must not take risks with inflation . . .�? What he means is: “Nobody would like to pay the police more than I do, but I’ve screwed up the nation’s finances and it will be embarrassing if our bud- get deficit gets even bigger . . .�? MPs, earning £60,675, are not particularly well paid. Here in London, that salary would be laughed at by many in the private, and public, sectors. But, in standing up to No.10, MPs should also stand up for police officers, up to 10,000 of whom will protest outside Parliament today, in the so-called “bobby lobby�?. Among the MPs protesting over the staged police pay award are Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby), Louise Ellman (Riverside), George Howarth (Knowsley North and Sefton East), Peter Kilfoyle (Walton), Eddie O’Hara (Knowsley South), John Pugh (Southport) and Bob Wareing (West Derby). They should get their modest pay rise – and ensure the police are next in line. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/OD-WIAW4YtM/why_mps_should_get_a_pay_rise.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/why_mps_should_get_a_pay_rise.html Tue, 22 Jan 2008 01:46:02 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/why_mps_should_get_a_pay_rise.html WHITEHALL targets are normally placed just behind dirty hospitals and greedy GPs in any list of alleged evils dragging down the NHS. Heroic doctors and nurses are prevented from using their expert, clinical judgment by the ignorant instructions of some puffed-up bureaucrat, or so the story goes. Last week, it was reported that billions are wasted by casualty departments admitting patients they should send home, in order to meet a target that all are assessed within four hours. It was easy, therefore, for David Cameron to win plaudits for his New Year pledge to scrap all NHS targets and “let doctors decide the right treatment for their patients�?. The Tory leader claimed the NHS was burdened with a mind-boggling 64 Treasury targets, requiring a staggering 250,000 annual data returns, at a cost of £400,000. So, targets are, well, an easy target – and perhaps there are too many of them? But what if the evidence shows they are working? That was the conclusion of the NHS Confederation’s study into the effect of Whitehall’s instructions to hospitals to treat all routine patients within 12, nine and then six months. In England, hospital managers were threatened with punishments if they failed. The result? Most patients will be treated within 18 weeks – the next target – by the end of this year. Most will be treated within seven weeks – an astonishing advance on a decade ago when waits of 18 months, or even two years, were all-too-common. In Scotland, the Edinburgh Parliament rejected a similar target-driven regime, relying on an “expectation�? that waiting times would fall. They did not. The conclusion was that “targets and terror work�? – with little evidence that patients are treated contrary to clinical priority, or that the figures are fiddled. But this message was buried under the headlines triggered by a related conclusion that devolution had created “NHS apartheid�? – with England the poor relation. The focus was on some benefits undoubtedly enjoyed by Scots – free prescriptions, free eye-tests, access to some life-saving drugs – and denied to the English. Of course, targets cannot measure everything that matters – and no-one likes paying prescription fees. But I think most patients would rather pay for their pills than wait months for a heart operation, or a new hip, as they do north of the border. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/KMWjz8DPd2Y/what_if_the_health_targets_act.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/what_if_the_health_targets_act.html Health Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:17:31 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/what_if_the_health_targets_act.html SOUTHPORT MP John Pugh will speak for the Liberal Democrats on the crunch issue of the economy. A heavyweight job – but he has been in training. As he told the House magazine, remembering his school days: “I got very interested in weightlifting and still enjoy a relaxing bout of heavy lifting.�? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/4Vf3i-b0XAU/right_man_for_a_heavyweight_jo.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/right_man_for_a_heavyweight_jo.html Lib Dems John Pugh Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:18:52 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/01/right_man_for_a_heavyweight_jo.html SHOULD I go to jail rather than carry a hated identity card – and will I be able to get myself locked up, even if I try? Those questions have been following me around ever since the “Datagate�? scandal broke, with the loss of two CDs bearing our child benefits records. Until this extraordinary blunder, we were all sleepwalking into the looming disaster of ID cards and the scary database that will accompany them. The potential exposure of half the nation to fraudsters made everyone sit up and realise the far greater risk of piling far more detailed information onto the National Identity Register (NIR). Well, I say everyone. Everyone, that is, except the Government – which insisted the answer to the crisis sparked by Datagate was, er, biometric ID cards. This, of course, is complete nonsense. We now know, for certain, that any database is only as secure as the people who guard it. Or – as at HMRC – fail to. Experts agree that organised criminals are licking their lips at the prospect of breaching the NIR, with its 49 separate pieces of information – on all of us. Already, there is evidence that the microchips that will contain our biometrics – face, fingerprints and iris – can be read by illegal scanners at 30 paces. In trials, the technology did not even work properly, failing to identify many people who are disabled, elderly, or from ethnic minorities. It leaves in tatters the Government’s insistence that it will be impossible to steal someone’s fingerprints in the way, for example, a National Insurance number can be nicked. And how exactly do ministers propose to issue me with new fingerprints, or eyes, once my identity has been stolen? All this criticism ignores the mind blowing cost of ID cards – £5.3bn, according to the Government; up to £20bn, say independent studies. Recently, would-be Liberal Democrat leaders Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne have vowed to disobey this insane law, so should I join them? But this is where it gets tricky, because the Home Office has cunningly made it all-but impossible to take such a protest all the way to the prison gates. Failing to register will not mean a jail term. Instead, there will be a £1,000 civil penalty for failing to reveal changes of circumstances, such as a new address or marriage. Presumably, I could – eventually – go to jail for non- payment of fines? But being an ID card martyr could prove a very expensive business. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RobMerricksPoliticalBlog/~3/jg0xaj7WP6A/a_crisis_of_identity.html http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2007/12/a_crisis_of_identity.html identity cards ID cards Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:03:22 +0000 http://www.robmerrick.merseyblogs.co.uk/2007/12/a_crisis_of_identity.html