Stephen Hodgson

Archive for November, 2009

Jedward are out of X-Factor, giving the Conservative Party the perfect opportunity to respond to last week’s Labour poster campaign with this:

Jedward are gone but we're still left with... Deadwood: Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling as Jedward

Last night was the Voluntary Action Charnwood (VAC) and John Storer House Foundation AGM, which I attended as a guest/observer. The meeting was packed but despite a number of presentations and a few questions from the floor, the meeting was kept to just over an hour long.

The most interesting report for me was the treasurer’s presentation of the VAC and John Storer House Foundation accounts for the year to 31 March 2009. There has been a lot of public indignation expressed by local MP Andy Reed and Labour council group leader Max Hunt about the level of financial support being given to John Storer House by Charnwood Borough Council.

Indeed, Andy Reed wrote on his website:

I only learned this morning that the cuts are proposed for this financial year. With no notice the Borough Council will be cutting money to the most vulnerable.

Talk of cuts for John Storer House Foundation do not make a lot of sense in the context of (i) the historic level of funding (see page 5 of this report to Charnwood Borough Council’s Cabinet on 29 October 2009) or (ii) the accounts that were presented last night. John Storer House Foundation not only managed to provide its services with (significantly smaller) council grants of just £29,000 in the year to 31 March 2006 and £36,000 in the year to 31 March 2007 (the last two years under the previous council administration) but John Storer House Foundation’s accounts show, at 31 March 2009, general reserves of just under £190,000. As the treasurer pointed out at last night’s meeting: John Storer House Foundation has healthy levels of reserves which it has discretion to spend and, if necessary, it will be able to call on those reserves in the current financial year.

Perhaps Andy Reed and Max Hunt should have attended the AGM last night. At the very least I hope they will take just five minutes to speak to the Foundation’s treasurer or read the John Storer House Foundation accounts. Then again, that might not fit their pre-determined agenda of talking about cuts!

Today’s Times reports that Labour may be abandoning financial support for constituencies with a Labour majority of less than 3,000 votes. The Loughborough constituency, where prospective Conservative MP Nicky Morgan is campaigning to overturn a Labour majority of just 1,996 votes, falls squarely into this bracket.

According to the Times:

Labour’s cash-strapped party machine is quietly abandoning up to 60 vulnerable seats to divert resources to defend constituencies in its heartlands, according to MPs.

…

Plans for targeted mailshots in marginal seats have been scaled back dramatically because of a lack of resources. Some MPs say Labour’s HQ is refusing to help seats with majorities of less than 3,000 — about 60 — as it retrenches in the face of the Tory advance.

That the Labour Party has had financial problems in recent years is no secret but it won’t do much for the morale of Labour MPs and activists in marginal constituencies like Loughborough if Labour HQ withdraws financial support.

The Times goes on to explain:

In the past year the [Labour] party has “raised” £18 million compared with the Conservatives’ £25 million. However, £2 million was a loan converted to a donation and £15 million is in borrowing and credit facilities.

Conservatives across the country still have a lot of work to do to win in places like Loughborough but with committed candidates like Nicky Morgan (and a lack of support from even within their own parties for marginal Labour MPs), it’s little wonder that the bookies have Nicky Morgan as odds-on favourite to be the next MP for Loughborough (according to Ladbrokes: Nicky Morgan at 1/6, Labour at 7/2, 16/11/09).

Last week’s Loughborough Echo (6 November 2009) featured a letter from Loughborough Shelthorpe Labour councillor Neville Stork attacking MPs who have second jobs (page 32, “The real issue is MPs having more than one job”).

Councillor Stork’s letter included the following comments:

…we fund MPs to a staggering amount – I accept that the work is long and difficult, but they receive a salary that most readers can only dream of; and yet some of them have second jobs as company directors, barristers, after dinner speakers, consultants and lobbyists.

Has the time come for us to ask that MPs do the job they are being paid to do? Has the time come for us to deduct some of their salary for their absence?

And what of local democracy? Are we to believe that ’second jobbers’ can and do deliver their full attention to those who have elected them?

…

The current scandal of the expenses hopefully will give us a more accounable and professional body of MPs; we are of course well blessed with Andy Reed who is an example of rectitude, but is now the time for the electorate to ask that MPs agree to take no other employment that (sic) the one they are paid for?

Neville Stork
Councillor, Loughborough Shelthorpe

I wrote a letter to the editor in response to Councillor Stork’s letter, which unfortunately wasn’t printed in this week’s Echo (13 November 2009), so I’ve reproduced it here instead:

I was surprised to read Coun Neville Stork’s letter in last week’s Echo complaining about MPs having more than one job. A lot of people work more than one job and it can be invaluable to helping them maintain a broad range of skills and knowledge (or just to support their income). I think it is especially important that politicians maintain links to the ‘real world’ outside politics – and one way of them achieving that is by working outside politics. Parliament has a number of initiatives to help in this respect, such as a scheme that allows MPs to work as special constables in the police.

Coun Stork also complains about what he calls ’second jobbers’ in local democracy – I assume he counts himself as one of these people, having previously held three jobs (county councillor, borough councillor and a day job for Leicester City Council) and currently holding two (borough councillor and a day job for Leicester City Council).

As for being ‘blessed’ with Andy Reed as our MP in Loughborough, let’s not forget that a number of questions remain over Mr Reed’s expenses claims, that Mr Reed refuses to speak to the public about his expenses by blocking press enquiries and that he is one of a number of MPs who uses his Parliamentary expenses to employ his wife.

As someone who believes we already have more government than we need, I would be in favour of paying MPs less and at the same time having MPs spending less time creating ever more laws and regulations!

Stephen Hodgson
Councillor, Loughborough Dishley and Hathern

Of course, Councillor Stork also forgets to mention in his letter that Loughborough MP Andy Reed (“an example of rectitude”) has held a number of second jobs whilst an MP in Parliament, including working as Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to (then) Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo, as PPS to (then) Financial Secretary John Healey and as PPS to (then) DEFRA minister Margaret Beckett – amongst many other jobs Mr Reed has held and continues to hold in addition to his job as MP for Loughborough. Personally, I don’t see the problem with this – but apparently it bothers Councillor Stork.

Perhaps Councillor Stork’s next step is his campaign against ’second jobbers’ should be to ask Andy Reed to give up the outside roles he holds aside from being an MP so that Mr Reed can actually give 100 percent of his attention to representing the people of Loughborough. The people of Loughborough deserve nothing less!

Prospective Conservative MP for Loughborough Nicky Morgan has organised a couple of interesting events later this month, both being held at John Storer House in central Loughborough.

The first event is a half-day Careers Workshop on Saturday 21 November from 10.00am to 2.00pm. With the official rate of unemployment at 2.5 million people and the real rate of people out of work even higher than that, this event is not only helpful but extremely timely. According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics today, figures for youth unemployment (16-24 year olds) are now at their highest ever level with one in five people in this age group unemployed. This workshop is an opportunity for people in Loughborough to receive free careers advice covering a range of areas from CV writing to goal-setting and confidence-building. Further details  of the careers workshop are on the Loughborough Conservatives website and on Facebook.

The second event is a Community Safety Workshop on Friday 27 November from 1.30pm to 5.00pm. The event will take the form of two Question Time-style panels with panelists from Charnwood Borough Council, Leicestershire Police Authority, Neighborhood Watch, the TaxPayer’s Alliance and the Conservative Disability Group. With increasing instances of so-called anti-social behaviour and other crime, this is another important and timely event and will give people in Loughborough the chance to air their views on crime and learn more about the work of various local and national organisations trying to reduce and prevent crime. Further details of the community safety workshop are on the Loughborough Conservatives website.

Both events are open to the public and free to attend. Further enquiries should be directed to Loughborough Conservatives on office@loughboroughconservatives.com or 01509 219370.

Update (17/11/09): The community safety workshop has featured in the Loughborough Echo.