Lifted wholesale from Conservative Home website – hope no one minds.

By yesterday, even those paid to take an interest in proceedings had given up. C4 news uttered not one word about the Liberal Democrat conference last night. This morning, Today in its first hour devoted maybe 15 seconds (in one of those dreary scripted two-way ‘conversations’) to say that not much good had happened. I suppose the Lib Dems should count themselves lucky that the mischievous Evan Davis didn’t jump in to mention the beached whale as a fitting metaphor for the week’s activities.

Even that would have been too kind. A whale, beached or otherwise, is a magnificent fact of creation: graceful and terrible and mighty; hardly a fitting metaphor for the Liberal Democrats who, in a week they must wish is quickly forgotten, offered at least a trinity of disasters:

(1) Nick ‘Savage Cuts’ Clegg put on his ill-fitting guise of the Angry Young Man of British Politics, in a determined effort to sound stentorian. I imagine him lying in bed, in the early hours, gazing at the ceiling, and dreaming, in that between-sleep-and-wakefulness moment, of the conversations to be overheard at the Dog and Duck: That Nick Clegg! ‘E tells it ‘ow it is! I’m gonna vote for ‘im! Perhaps he sees himself as Elizabeth I? Manning-up in order to deliver the message that his party – let alone the electorate – doesn’t want to hear? We will savagely scrap our free tuition policy! he – well, not announced, more sort of tangentially ‘let it be known’ – only to retract the (non)commitment when the massed ranks of something called the Federal Policy Committee responded with that most lethal of Lib Dem weapons, a letter to the Guardian.

(2) Is he human? Or just a dancer? That’s the question not on anyone’s lips after Vince Cable announced a local taxation policy which no-one could explain. I thought we were supposed to genuflect at the altar of this man’s intellect? Given the house prices in the constituency he represents, perhaps this was just Dr Cable’s coded message that he’d like to retire at the next election to spend more time with his dance partners. Whatever the rights or wrongs of punitive class-based anti-southern market-distorting local taxation (I’m hinting at my feelings about the policy, there), to announce something you cannot then explain makes the action of that poor whale seem rational by comparison.

(3) And then we had Chris Huhne. It would be cheap if I wrote Chris Hu-he, wouldn’t it? Ah well – I’m a cheap date. This leader-never-to-be decided that what the Lib Dems really need at a national level is a wannabe Tebbitesque attack-dog figure. Psychologically incapable of hiding how much David Cameron’s lovebombing rankles him, he went for that Lib Dem campaign classic, the Smear. William Hague – he’s bald you know! And he drinks beer! He must be an anti-semite then! So must all Tories in fact! Can’t you see, British people?! They’re all disgusting homophobic anti-semites, those Tories! DO YOU HEAR ME?! That dragging sound, Chris, is the scraping of chairs as your audience edges backwards, towards the door, fearful of meeting your eye in the process. Dr Kiosk is ready to see you now.

Two thoughts in conclusion:

Neither the Lib Dem leadership nor the British mainstream media have a clue what is meant by love-bombing. By highlighting our civil liberty instincts (on ID cards, detention without charge, the surveillance state and so on), we (liberal Conservatives) aren’t in the slightest bit interested in winning the affection of the Lib Dem MPs or activists. It’s your voters we’re after, Nick, and every time you respond to a generous statement of common purpose from David Cameron, with an ill-tempered shriek or smear, you drive more of them back to their historical electoral home. No-one likes a shrieker, Nick, ferocious or otherwise.

Realignment isn’t coming in British politics, at least not yet, and not in the replace-Labour dream of most Lib Dems. Danny Finkelstein points out this morning that the biggest third party winners of the anti-Labour shift at the moment are the ‘Others’. That means that the Lib Dems aren’t even seen as a protest party anymore. They’re just a residual lump of ill-determined thought, fighting Tories in the South and Labour in the North, with nothing, absolutely nothing, of any intellectual substance to bind them together. I’m the original anti-fan of unbridled ideology in politics, but some sort of raison d’etre, other than ‘we’re not the other ones in this immediate geographical area, though sometimes indeed we are the other ones, in other geographical areas’, is a sine qua non for political existence.

What, in the end, is the point of the Liberal Democrats? Maybe the poor whale was trying to tell them something, after all.

Posted by Graeme Archer

One of the best quotes heard today. And how true it is. They’ve set their new mansion tax policy, which is a surcharge on property value while opposing the council tax as it’s based on property value. They were going to call William Hague a ‘Skin head who trawls the beer cellars of Europe looking for Nazis.’ There leader gets blasted by his own front bench over policy. And then the biggest shot in the foot. They say they’d do a deal with Gordon Brown to keep him in Downing Street if there was a hung Parliament.

Well the message is quite clear – the Lib Dems are Labour poodles and the only way to kick Brown out is the vote Conservative.

Councillor Simon Renwick

Member for Medlar-with-Wesham

Fylde Borough Council

07515 128 075

simon@simonrenwick.com

It was with sadness that I attended another gathering on Thursday.  This was at St Cuthbert’s church in Lytham to attend the funeral of Councillor Bill Thompson.  Bill had been a councillor at Fylde for 39 years and he also served on Lancashire county Council.  For many years Bill had been chairman on Planning and deputy leader of the Conservative Group.

When I was first elected in 1999. Bill was very supportive and showed me many of the ropes.  Bill was a force for common sense and old style values.  He will be missed on the council.  My thoughts are with Joan his wife and the rest of his family.

Bill, a physicist by profession, studied under the great Alan Turing at Manchester University.  Alan Turing broke the Enigma Code and developed the worlds first computer.  With a teacher like that, no wonder Bill became such a highly regarded gentleman.

Last Thursday I substituted for another Conservative member on the Community Outlook committee.  Two reports were before the committee.  The first was on car parking charges across the borough.  I supported a freeze in the charges this year due to the difficult financial climate.  I also supported some further work into looking at Christmas reductions in 2010 onwards.  I think to be competitive our borough has to look at the pricing structure of the shopping car parks.

The second item was a report by Liberal Democrat councillor Tony Ford.  Cllr. Ford had brought a well written and thought out report on dog fouling.  The report made some interesting recommendations that I was happy to support.  Dog fouling is a scourge and we need to tackle it.  The new dog control orders will make it easier to fine and control offending owners.

Next meeting in Monday 28th when it is full council, I’ll report back.

Can you spread the word about the Northern Soul night taking place at Lowther Pavilion in Lytham (FY8) on Saturday the 26th September 2009 from 8pm – 1 am.  Diane Shaw will be making an appearance supported by guest DJ’s.  There is a licensed subsidised bar and free parking if needed.  Tickets are just 7.00 pounds and can be purchased on the night or through www.lowtherpavilion.co.uk

 Wooden Dance floor and fantastic sound system so it should be a great night.  If this is a success (and there are some up here that say Northern Soul is dead) it could be become a regular event.  If you can spread the word and get as many as possible to turn out, it would be appreciated.

Please take part in the poll.

Some weeks ago I was critised for having my mobile phone on during a town council meeting.  It was doing nothing, it was not ringing, buzzing or, other than telling me the time, anything other than just sitting on the table – quietly.  Some people took exception to this and I took exception at their demanding ways.  We’re not in big brother Soviet Russia.  If I had been constantly taking calls – well that would be another matter.

But it did get me thinking.  Why not use a mobile device in meetings.  I have the technology to live blog.  I could use my Blackberry to Tweet important decisions to the people who follow me and update my Facebook status at the same time.  Surely this will see local democracy come alive and closer to the people.  At most Fylde meetings we have say half a dozen members of the public in attendance, at Wesham meetings it’s usually nobody.  So why not let people know what’s going on live.

I can update this blog by email, by text and live on my Blackberry.  Spending a few seconds after every agenda item updating would not be a hassle and would allow instant live information.  It’s just a bit of thinking – but let me know what you think.

The Prime Minister has after so many years of saying no cuts, has finally realised that public spending is bloated, inefficient, wasteful, unnecessary and outdated.  We all agree that a certain level of taxation and then public spending is needed to support things like good schools, hospital, defence and other essential services.  But under this Government we’re paying more tax, especially stealth, whilst spending on public services has ballooned with very little visible benefit.

We’re in a recession, albeit one where despite the record levels of unemployment, few people are hurting due to very low interest rates.  The recession needs some degree of belt tightening as the public purse cannot sustain the level of public debt.  The Government is just as guilty of squandering good finances and toxic debt as some city bankers seem to be.

So for years we’ve been told by Brown that he’ll invest while the Tories will cut.  Well in my book we make investments to gain a return - and I see no return.  Cutting back budgets and spending will allow the Government to either pay back the debt or pass the savings on to the people – remember all Government money belongs to us, the people.  By passing on the savings in lower taxes people can decide to spend the money how they like, either savings, increasing their spending or investing in enterprise or wealth creation.  All of which benefit the economy far more than employing any number of equality inspectors.

I think the it all boils down to whether we trust Governments or we trust the people.  I know who I trust more and that’s the same whether it is Brown and Labour or Dave and the Tories.

Whilst crossing the road to go to the doctors I noticed what a state the road surface is on Church Street. I’ll be reporting it when I get home. But really, what are Kirkham’s councillors doing about it? I remember one dressing up in caving gear a few years back. They must have lost interest.