Stephen Hodgson

Archive for February, 2010

To coincide with the start of Conservative Party’s Spring Forum in Brighton, David Cameron has released his latest ‘Webcameron’ brief video in which he describes the Conservative Party as modern and radical.

David Cameron says:

Britain is crying out for a modern and radical alternative to this failed Labour Government. Under Gordon Brown, this country is going in the wrong direction and we need big changes to turn things around. We have the biggest budget deficit in our peacetime history. We’ve got massive social problems. And we’ve got a political system that’s been dragged through the dirt. We cannot solve these problems unless we are bold and radical.

The Conservatives Spring Forum also sees the launch of the Conservative Party’s six key election themes:

• * Act now on debt to get the economy moving
• * Get Britain working by boosting enterprise
• * Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe
• * Back the NHS
• * Raise standards in schools
• * Change politics

Britain desperately needs a bold and radical new Conservative government which will speak for and represent everyone in Britain and make the changes Britain needs. Let’s hope Gordon Brown calls the election soon.

Dave Faulks, a blogger from Loughborough who writes at Faulks Talks, has published a message he says he received from Loughborough MP Andy Reed. Dave, who describes himself as an ideological socialist,  contacted Andy Reed to express his concern about the direction in which the Labour Party has moved. Mr Reed’s incredible response comes across as aggressive and threatening:

Whilst it is fine to live in a puritanical ideological bubble – I don’t think it is sustainable.

In Loughborough if you don’t vote for me you get a right wing Tory MP – simple as that.

I clearly won’t change your mind on your poltics so I won’t waste anytime doing so. But enjoy having a Tory MP and government more right wing than Thatcher

Andy

This is the writing of an MP who feels cornered and who has clearly lost respect for the people who elected him.

The closing date for responses to Leicestershire County Council’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) bid is Tuesday 2 March 2010 – less than a week from now.

If you live in Loughborough, Quorn or Barrow-upon-Soar and surrounding areas and you have an interest in the future of education in the area then please take a couple of minutes to complete the county council’s online consultation response form.

The bid will only succeed with the support of local people and positive consultation responses.

The latest YouGov daily poll (for today’s Sun) shows the Conservative opinion poll lead doubling from the same poll on Saturday, at the time of Gordon Brown’s Coventry press event.

The results are:

Conservatives 41 percent (up 2)
Labour 29 percent (down 4)
Lib Dems 19 percent (up 2)

Whilst 12 percent is a strong lead, polls cannot be completely relied on to accurately predict the results of a General Election. David Cameron told Sky News last night: “We can get our economy going, we can mend the broken society but we’ve got a lot of work to do to convince people that change is possible because right now, I think they find that hard to believe”.

In Loughborough the Conservatives need a swing of 1.15 percent. Ladbrokes are currently offering odds of 1/8 that Nicky Morgan will be elected the next MP for Loughborough.

Update (24/02/10): The numbers in this post were collected from ConservativeHome. ConHome now says the numbers were incorrect and should read: Con 39 (nc), Lab 33 (nc) and LD 17 (nc).

The BBC reports George Osborne’s announcement that the Conservatives plan to encourage saving and investment by allowing the public to buy shares in government-controlled banks such as Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group at discounted prices:

“The man who would be chancellor wants a new generation of mass share ownership,” said BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam.

“And he wants to create a new culture of saving rather than borrowing.”

Mr Osborne said the share offer would only be made when the banks were properly regulated and could not take the kinds of risks that preceded the recession.

The BBC explains the details as reported in an interview George Osborne gave to the Sunday Times:

It was expected people would be offered shares worth between a few hundred and few thousand pounds at a discount on the market price, the paper reported.

There could be extra discounts for young people, low-income families and parents saving for their children.

This strikes me as a creative way to encourage share-ownership and saving and at the same give ordinary people the opportunity to exercise control over the banks that their taxes helped to bail out.

In what are hopefully Gordon Brown’s final few weeks in office, more and more people who have worked closely with the PM are going public to describe his management style (if it can be called that) and what it’s like to work for Gordon Brown.

Last night the PM was forced to go on television to give an interview denying that he has ever hit his staff. However, he admitted to becoming angry and to “throwing papers”. People who have worked closely with Brown say that he is verbally abusive to staff, that he hit an aide, that he threw a secretary out of a chair, that he throws his mobile phone and office equipment in angry outbursts, that he kicked over a desk in rage and that he drove a top aide to burst into tears, amongst other things.

Brown’s aggressive temper was apparent on live television last September during an interview with Sky News:

Today’s Observer reports that Brown was asked by top civil servant Sir Gus O’Donnell to “curb your volcanic temper”. Sir Gus is also reported to have told the PM that his abusive and unpredictable behaviour towards his staff was “no way to get things done”.

Just this evening it has emerged that some of Gordon Brown’s staff contacted the anti-bullying charity “National Bullying Helpline”.

Loughborough MP Andy Reed (who in fact worked under Gordon Brown as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Treasury when Gordon Brown was chancellor) describes Gordon Brown as a “towering figure” – but it is increasingly obvious that Brown is nothing more than a coward and a bully. He is certainly not fit to hold the office of prime minister.

People should take a long, hard look at Gordon Brown before deciding to put a cross next to Labour on their ballot paper. A vote for Labour is a vote for Gordon Brown.

Last Thursday evening Loughborough Conservatives held their highly-anticipated “Hollywood Night” event with special guest Eric Pickles MP, chairman of the Conservative Party. The event was organised in support of the prospective Conservative MP for Loughborough – Nicky Morgan.

The event was attended by about one hundred local people – both people already involved in local politics and the Conservative Party and those seeking to become involved in the run up to the General Election (whenever that happens to be).

Eric Pickles mingled with guests and enjoyed Reel Cinema’s generous hospitality before giving a 15-minute speech. Eric explained just how important this year’s General Election will be for people in Britain, describing it as a “once in a generation” election. This year’s election offers people in Britain the chance to vote for real change. In Loughborough, we have in Nicky Morgan the opportunity to elect a hard-working and committed Conservative MP. Eric was full of praise for Nicky.

Nicky has been the prospective MP for Loughborough for more than six years now and if elected there is no doubt she will be an strong voice for Loughborough and a very effective MP in the Commons.

Many thanks to Eric Pickles for taking the time to spend a very enjoyable evening in Loughborough.

This week’s Loughborough Echo (19 February 2010) features a letter from borough and county councillor Peter Lewis about the county council’s ‘Building Schools for the Future’ (BSF) proposals. Peter’s letter, which is available to read in full on the Echo’s website, makes some excellent points about the schools reorganisation that perhaps haven’t so far received the attention they deserve:

Peter writes:

I’ve no wish to reiterate whats been well presented elsewhere, but rather to highlight two particular points not covered to date.

The first is, at least under Option A, education would not cease at Limehurst. The proposal is it would become a new Post 16 Centre for up to 800 students. Such a facility can offer the full range of diplomas, certificates, A levels etc., in a way smaller numbers could not. It also brings our young people into the heart of town, and were they to offer music, dance, plays etc., these and community activities would be easily accessible to the wider public because of the location – next to the new Inner Relief road – but far less dangerous than it would be for much younger children. I believe Limehurst would offer an exciting and vibrant place, bringing together all our local talents, working side by side. My personal view is that on balance this is better for students than being in smaller separate sixth forms – but I know many will disagree. But under Option A learning at Limehurst will continue.

My second point is to draw attention to the creation of our new Area Special School to replace Ashmount. This would not be affordable under the recently promoted alternative Option C. Ashmount has for years existed in buildings which were not even designed to be a school. It offers a wonderful and life-affirming school experience for our very vulnerable young people four-19. But the promise of a new school has remained unfulfilled until this exciting opportunity arose. This new school for 120 pupils is essential on both educational and moral grounds.We should not pay lip service by saying these pupils matter and then immediately ignoring them out of self interest. For this county and for Loughborough, it is right to put these special needs students high on our agenda.

If you haven’t already responded to the county council’s public consultation, please take a moment to fill in the consultation response form now – there are only two questions and it takes literally less than two minutes to register a positive vote in favour of unlocking £80m of investment that will benefit people in Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow for decades to come. The deadline for responses is Tuesday 2 March 2010.

My congratulations go to Iain Bentley – the newly elected Conservative councillor for Birstall Watermead on Charnwood Borough Council. Iain was elected in yesterday’s local by-election.

The full results were as follows:

Iain Bentley, Conservatives – 674 votes (48 percent)
Hayley Winrow, Labour – 452 votes (32 percent)
John Oatley, BNP – 288 votes (20 percent)

Labour’s own polling suggested that Labour would poll ahead of the Conservatives with 30 percent of the vote against the Conservatives on 20 percent of the vote. I questioned the reliability of this polling at the time and, in the event, the Conservatives saw a slight improvement on 2007 performance in this ward (up from 47 percent of the vote to 48 percent of the vote).

Congratulations once again to Councillor Iain Bentley.

Yesterday the Conservatives announced plans to give public sector workers the right to form John Lewis-style employee-owned co-operatives. The Conservatives policy is to allow employees throughout most of the public sector to run state-funded services as co-operatives to empower employees and free services from central bureucracy.

This is the sort of innovative policy that only the Conservatives are proposing and which has the potential to radically improve public services and improve conditions for people who work in the public sector – ranging from teachers to nurses to Job Centre Plus staff.

Whilst most of the talk about schools in Loughborough at the moment is focused on the county council’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) bid (and we must not be distracted from that), it is interesting to think how the Conservatives education reform policy and policy on co-operatives would enable parents to quite literally take ownership of their children’s education and what a difference this could make to education in the future.

A summary of the proposals is available from the Conservatives.com website and there is also more information available from the Conservative Co-operative Movement.

This evening Loughborough Chamber of Trade and Commerce hosted a ‘business hustings’ event for Loughborough’s parliamentary candidates. The event took the format of 10-15 minute speeches by the candidates followed by an hour of questions and answers with local small business owners in the audience. Questions spanned subjects as wide as bankers’ bonuses and the work ethic of children leaving school.

In their speeches the candidates were asked to outline some of their national party policies affecting small businesses as well as their own vision for businesses in Loughborough. Lib Dem candidate Mike Willis, clearly a fan of Vince Cable, spoke mainly about macroeconomic policies and how the current economic situation and tax system affects businesses. Prospective Conservative MP Nicky Morgan split her speech equally between national Conservative policies affecting businesses and how, if she was elected, she would use her role as MP to support small businesses in Loughborough.

Loughborough’s incumbent Labour MP Andy Reed was not present at the hustings, having told the Chamber that he will not share a platform with the Conservative and Lib Dem candidates until after a General Election is called.

All-in-all the business hustings was a good event, with members of the Chamber commenting on how helpful it was to hear the candidates outline both their party’s policies and their personal views about business and enterprise.

Nicky Morgan recently launched a ’small shops’ campaign and people in Loughborough are being encouraged to nominate their favourite small shops by e-mailing the name of their favourite small shop (and the reason why it’s their favourite) to office@loughboroughconservatives.com. The winning shop will be presented with an award next month.

I am delighted to learn that Leicestershire County and Rutland NHS yesterday decided that the Loughborough NHS walk-in centre, which it was proposed would be moved to Epinal Way, will remain in its current location on Pinfold Gate in the town centre.

This is a common-sense decision and means the walk-in centre will remain in the most accessible location for most users. Moving the walk-in centre to Epinal Way would have undoubtedly turned it into a drive-in centre with extremely limited parking.

I’ve no doubt this decision wouldn’t have gone this way if not in part for the many months of campaigning, responding to consultations and lobbying by Charnwood councillor Pauline Ranson and prospective Conservative MP for Loughborough Nicky Morgan. Both Pauline and Nicky have been campaigning for almost two years to keep the walk in centre in its town centre location. During that time there have been a few occasions when I’ve heard it said that the local NHS had already made the decision and that the campaign was futile – thankfully Nicky and Pauline persevered and their campainging had a real influence on the decision taken by the NHS yesterday.

Well done to Nicky and Pauline for taking the time to lobby local NHS bosses and encouraging people to respond to the local NHS’s transport survey. (The above photograph is of a protest walk organised by Nicky and Pauline in August 2008 during which campaigners walked from Pinfold Gate to Epinal Way to highlight the transport problems associated with the proposed move of the walk-in centre.)

There are now less than three weeks left for people in Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow and surrounding areas to respond to Leicestershire County Council’s consultation on its Building Schools for the Future (BSF) bid which, if successful, will unlock £80m of investment in schools in the Loughborough area. This really is a one-off opportunity for people in Loughborough and surrounding areas to get access to state-of-the-art secondary and special schools – but it will only happen if people support the county council’s bid and if the county council can demonstrate to the national government bodies that we have local support.

The leader of Charnwood Borough Council, Councillor Mike Preston, has put the case for supporting BSF extremely well:

We want Loughborough to be seen as a ‘learning community’. To raise Loughborough’s profile as a university town and now potentially a town with new secondary schools offering wider and up-to-date curriculum choices, state-of-the-art IT and new purpose built buildings which will make them among the best to be found anywhere in the UK.

And on leaving school, we want to see far more of our young people going to university. At the moment only about 23% go on, compared with 45% nationally. In a town that has one of the country’s leading universities!

There can be a perception at times that government consultations don’t make a real difference to outcomes. In the case of the county council’s BSF bid that is certainly not the case and it is crucial that parents, teachers, governors and others get involved in the consultation in a positive way.

Councillor Preston says:

We will only get the £80 million on the condition that people respond positively to the consultation. So it’s up to all Loughborough, Barrow and Quorn people, young and old, to really make it happen by really showing they want this opportunity to change – not just for now but for a whole new generation yet to come.

If the BSF bid is successful (and that is definitely an if at this stage), children in Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow would benefit from:

• * Better exam results by creating 11-16 and 11-19 schools (instead of the ‘middle school’ system)
• * More subject options, including more vocational diplomas
• * More specialisms giving them the opportunity to develop expertise in areas as broad as business, maths and modern languages

This is an opportunity not to be missed – but the county council’s bid will only succeed with the support of local people who are keen to transform learning in Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow and that’s why it is crucial for people to respond to the county council’s consultation.

The county council’s two BSF consultation options (known as ‘Option A’ and ‘Option B’) both involve closing Burleigh Community College, Garendon High School and Limehurst High School. Understandably parents and pupils at those schools want to know that the £80m of capital investment attached to a successful BSF bid is worth the upheaval associated with school reorganisation. The governors of Garendon High School and Limehurst High School have proposed an ‘Option C’ which would keep their schools open and which they have urged parents to write in on their consultation responses. The only problem with ‘Option C’ – and the reason it isn’t an official consultation response option – is that the government’s BSF programme requires local authorities to submit bids that meet key bid criteria set by the government and which ‘Option C’ doesn’t meet.

The problems with ‘Option C’ include:

• * The proposal for six secondary schools. A successful bid could only support a building programme for five secondary schools.
• * School sizes that are incompatible with the best educational outcomes. National evidence suggests the optimum school size for GCSEs is 1,000 to 1,200 places.
• * An 11-16 school on the Limehurst High School site. This site is not large enough to support an 11-16 school within the national BSF bid criteria.
• * The creation of too many surplus places. This is in breach of the national BSF bid criteria.

The consequence of supporting ‘Option C’ is that the county council could end up submitting a bid that does not meet the BSF bid criteria and which would therefore be rejected by the government at national level. This would mean throwing away a one-off opportunity to unlock £80m of investment and transform learning in Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow. If the only consultation responses the county council receives, however well-intentioned, say ‘Option C’ then the bid will be undermined and will, in all likelihood, fail.

I personally support a viable bid for the £80m of investment to transform education in Loughborough, which is why I support ‘Option A’. (This is my personal view.)

The parent-led One Through School campaign (which advocates for 11-16 education) has taken a positive approach to the BSF bid and those who want to engage in the consultation response in an informed way will find the One Through School website and One Through School Facebook group helpful.

Now is the time for those of us who want to see education in Loughborough transformed with new buildings, new equipment, new schools and a common sense 11-16 / 11-19 system to make our voices heard by submitting positive responses to the county council’s consultation – and by being bold enough to support either ‘Option A’ or ‘Option B’ so that Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow have the best possible chance of succeeding in the BSF bid.

Please take a moment to fill in the consultation response form now – there are only two questions and it takes literally less than two minutes to register a positive vote in favour of unlocking £80m of investment that will benefit people in Loughborough, Quorn and Barrow for decades to come.

The BBC reports that Jack Straw has now joined a cross-party campaign, supported by more than 100 MPs, to save General Election night:

Election counts will have to begin within four hours of polls closing under proposals backed by Jack Straw.

The justice secretary has thrown his weight behind a cross-party campaign to save the traditional election night.

He told MPs he was concerned about the “growing trend by returning officers” to begin counts the following day “for their own convenience”.

I previously reported that the timing of the General Election count in Loughborough is still uncertain, with the returning officer not yet having announced his decision about the timing of the count.

Jack Straw’s support for the campaign to save General Election night across the UK comes in the form of an amendment to the Constitutional Reform and Government Bill which MPs voted on last night. However, Jack Straw’s amendment, whilst welcome, may be only symbolic given the very limited time left for Parliament to pass new laws. The BBC goes on to report:

It is far from certain that the bill will become law before a general election but Mr Straw said he wanted to “send a message” to returning officers.

Nevertheless, it is pleasing to see parliamentarians trying to encourage returning officers to do the right thing and save our traditional election night counts.

I was a bit surprised this week to see Loughborough MP Andy Reed using his website to directly single out one of his constituents as a “serial moaner”. Mr Reed’s attack comes in response to this brief letter published in last week’s Loughborough Echo (5 February 2010, page 28):

What has Andy Reed done exactly?

LETTER the other week from a Mr J M Wood asking the people to Charnwood to vote for the man and not the Party.

Can I ask exactly what Andy Reed has done for Charnwood other than smiling on photos in the local Echo. Please ask him to list them.

- G V Marshall, Nanpantan Road, Loughborough

In response to the letter, Mr Reed writes on his website:

It therefore made me stop and think this week when one of my serial moaners (a regular letter writer to me being offensive about pretty much about everything) asked the Loughborough Echo what have I done apart from smile in the Echo.

Mr Reed should know after 13 years as an MP that a big part of the role of any elected representative is to be open to correspondence and complaints and to try to respond in a calm and helpful way – not to complain that such correspondence is being received. The letter in the Echo suggests G V Marshall of Nanpantan Road feels frustrated and it is a real shame if people in Loughborough feel unable to vent their feelings and concerns to their MP for fear that he might go on to use his website to brand them as “serial moaners”. Mr Reed displays the sort of contemptuous attitude that gives all politicians a bad name.