Stephen Hodgson

Archive for the ‘Videos’ Category

A powerful short film looking at New Labour’s record in government.

The report shows Conservative candidate Nicky Morgan meeting people in Loughborough market place.

Correction (26/04/10): This post previously stated that the report shows Labour candidate Andy Reed meeting Labour councillor Graeme Smith. I have now checked with Graeme and this is incorrect – the person Andy Reed meets in the film is in fact a Graeme Smith look-alike! (Although apparently they don’t look that similar in real life.) Apologies to Andy, Graeme and his look-alike.

Loughborough Conservatives have published a video of David Cameron’s speech in Loughborough market place on Monday (12 April 2010).

A longer video of the full speech is also available.

The BBC reports that the EU’s European Commission is now warning about the size of the UK’s budget deficit:

The government’s plans for reducing the budget deficit are not ambitious enough – according to a European Commission report to be published on Wednesday.

The report warns that the UK is not on course to cut its deficit in line with EU rules by a deadline of 2015.

Those rules say deficits must be below 3% of GDP, but the UK’s is expected to hit £178bn – 12.6% of GDP – this year.

In a separate article the BBC says the Conservatives are poised to reveal what cuts they will make if elected:

The Conservatives are preparing to outline spending cuts they would make in this financial year if they are elected, the BBC has been told.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the party was waiting for next week’s Budget before unveiling more details.

Earlier shadow chancellor George Osborne called the PM “dishonest” over the need for urgent spending cuts.

…

Mr Osborne added: “I think the central point we have to understand here is that the debt is holding back the British recovery, and unless we get confidence into the British recovery – and that comes from dealing with our debts – then we will not be creating the jobs that we all want to see.”

The UK national debt and the annual overspend (the deficit) are at record levels – dangerous levels. The UK is edging closer to losing its AAA rating on government debt. The unsustainable public debt is now risking a double-dip recession and holding back the recovery of the UK economy. The UK was the last major economy to leave recession at the end of last year. If the current government approach of spend, spend, spend continues we will probably see the Bank of England printing more money, inflation shooting up (it’s already now at 3.5 – 3.7 percent – well above the government’s target of 2.0 percent) and ever higher interest rates.

Public sector union UNISON recently produced a scare-video saying that if spending cuts are made then 999 calls will go unanswered and bins will go uncollected. The truth is that the government routinely wastes money and it is quite feasible to cut spending and secure the recovery without affecting the quality or level of frontline services. The TaxPayers’ Alliance have produced a rebuttal of the UNISON scare-video:

It will be interesting to see what next week’s budget brings and I look forward to seeing George Osborne set out some of his plans for if the Conservatives win the General Election and he becomes the next chancellor.

Prospective Conservative MP Nicky Morgan appeared on the BBC East Midlands Politics Show yesterday (7 March 2010) to talk about the announced closure of the AstraZeneca Charnwood facility in Loughborough.

Locally various organisations and politicians are working hard to try to mitigate the effects of the closure and to help those directly affected. Let’s hope the AstraZeneca issue moves further up the national government agenda soon.

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.

Further to my blog post at the weekend about the upcoming Loughborough Conservatives Hollywood Night, the event now has its own promotional video!

Happy New Year!

We’re guaranteed a General Election at long last this year so voters can finally pass judgement on Gordon Brown’s government and decide if they want the change offered by David Cameron and the Conservatives!

British politics in 2009 was dominated by the MPs’ expenses scandal and MPs will no doubt hope they can put the issue behind them in 2010. Now seems like a good time to recap some of the expenses claims of Loughborough MP Andy Reed. I thought it would be fun to do this by setting Mr Reed’s expenses claims against his involvement in a “Simplify” project.

In October 2009 Andy Reed participated in a challenge organised by the Evangelical Alliance called “Simplify“, in which he tried living on £5 a day for one month.

The Evangelical Alliance describes the challenge as follows:

As the recession bites, instinct tells us to hold tight to every penny we’ve got, and dream of the stuff we can buy when it’s over.

But Jesus challenged us not to worry about money, but to think first of the needs of others.

Simplify is a call to discipleship; to examine the spiritual hold money has on our lives by taking a month to consciously spend less and give more.

If you’ve been keeping track of Andy Reed’s expenses claims you’ll appreciate how difficult it must have been for him to live on £5 a day – I estimate Andy Reed has overclaimed expenses in the region of £20,000 in the present parliament alone! Andy Reed describes his taxpayer-funded second home, which is stuffed with taxpayer-funded furniture and electricals as “normal“.

It would seem that (taxpayers’) money does indeed have a “spiritual hold” on Mr Reed!

The following video contrasts the “Simplify” challenge with Mr Reed’s “normal” lifestyle.