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Am I wrong to laugh at Labour’s woes?

By Angela Harbutt
September 27th, 2011 at 7:42 pm | Comments Off on Am I wrong to laugh at Labour’s woes? | Posted in Labour, Uncategorized

Yes probably. But I could not help but hoot when Ed Miliband went off air for a while during his speech… Trust Labour with the economy ?.. You can’t even trust them to get their “once a year- showcase to nation”  broadcast right. Oh dear…

There is a mischeavous part of me that wonders if his “advisors” did not pull the plug on him..

Then came the sad indictment of the whole Labour party conference…Rather than spend hours with woeful Labourites arguing (still) that Ed Balls should not have apologised for Labour mistakes – or analysis and reactions to their glorious leaders speech- both BBC News Channel and Sky News decided that showing hours of live footage from Michael Jackson’s doctors trial was more interesting!

Hmmm..  Apparently… coverage of deadpan attorney in a dry courtroom addressing question of whether doctor killed pop star or not much more interesting than coverage of dull Labourites in dull conference hall addressing question of whether leader had killed party or not.

I seem to recall a certain Labour phrase about it being a good day to bury bad news. But NO! They surely didn’t deliberately schedule their hapless leaders speech to end just before the trial was due to go live… just in case?

Then again….

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Liberal Vision website bug is fixed!

By Angela Harbutt
September 27th, 2011 at 7:08 pm | Comments Off on Liberal Vision website bug is fixed! | Posted in Uncategorized

For those of you on Internet Explorer 8 you may have noticed we have been causing your pcs to crash. Apologies – wasn’t really our fault – that’s Internet explorer8 just a bit behind the times. But we have fixed it anyway!  If you are using Chrome or Firefox or IE9 you may not have noticed a problem – please be very smug and ignore this message.

Ed Miliband’s tuition fees policy would favour people on £72k pa

By Julian Harris
September 27th, 2011 at 6:30 am | Comments Off on Ed Miliband’s tuition fees policy would favour people on £72k pa | Posted in education, Government, Labour

Liberal think tank Centre Forum has been busy crunching some numbers, and their findings don’t make happy reading for Labour’s seemingly-doomed leader.

Ed Miliband has made a big socalist play of his alleged plans to force nasty bankers to subsidise cheaper degrees for the bright teenage children of  hard-working families.

Yet through its complexities, Miliband’s plan would typically benefit “graduates in their fifties earning £72,500”.

The study says: “Virtually no one in the bottom half of the earnings distribution, and virtually no one under the age of 35, will stand to gain from Labour’s plan.”

The policy of lumping further taxes on the financial sector “will be harmful during a period of economic recovery”.

It also adds: “Given the way that the student loan system works, the majority of the gains are illusory – what government gives on one hand, it takes back on the other.”

Indeed. Taking with one hand to give back (less) with the other. Nice to know someone else has noticed that.

Anyway, it looks like Our Vince is happy with the report:

“I would urge anyone attracted to Labour’s proposals to read this very informative analysis,” Vince said. “It makes clear that the policy only benefits wealthier, older graduates, and it exposes Labour’s claim that they want to help young people as completely false.”

You can read the report BY CLICKING HERE .

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Are the Lib Dems the “most interesting party” in British politics?

By Angela Harbutt
September 26th, 2011 at 4:18 pm | Comments Off on Are the Lib Dems the “most interesting party” in British politics? | Posted in Liberal Democrats

According to James Forsyth….

“The Liberal Democrats are now the most interesting party in British politics…We are seeing the most radical attempt to reform what a party stands for in British Politics we’ve seen for a long time”

Is he right? Well he said it a fringe event ” Coalition and the changing Liberal Democrats”. at Lib Dem conference last week. To allow you to judge for yourself, here is the full video of the whole discussion. Some very interesting, sometimes radical thoughts and ideas were offered at this session – not just by James..

watch it here

 

To help steer your way around the (rather long) video – here is a guide to what you will find where on the video…

David Laws speech : 00.02.44

Jeremy Browne speech : 00.10.21

Q&A with David Laws and Jeremy Browne: 00.21.00

Simon Goldie (LV):  00.39.20

James Forsyth (Spectator): 00.43.30

Mark Littlewood (IEA): 00.51.50

Q&A with Simon, James and Mark: 01.02.10

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However you add it up the coalition is still the brake on Labour

By Angela Harbutt
September 25th, 2011 at 7:00 am | 3 Comments | Posted in polls, Weird and Wonderful

The latest poll (by BPIX) on the state of the parties, commissioned by The Mail on Sunday, shows Ed Miliband in more than a spot of  bother. Voters think he is the wrong leader and that Labour has been rubbish in opposition….No wonder he has resorted to putting his children in front of the cameras… do politicians never learn?…. What is surprising it that Labour is still ahead in the polls…

Our vote still looks poor.. but consider the combined vote of  the Lib Dem and Tory parties…. that makes for a healthier proposition… If that is not enough… then consider the following… 

” when asked if Labour would do a better job in Government than the Tory-Lib Dem alliance, the Coalition wins by 43 to 35 “

 Consider what options the Coalition might consider were this September 2014 ?

My favourite bit of the poll is much less serious – but huge fun. It’s where voters were asked to compare the party leders with characters in the ITV series Downton Abbey…..

For those of you who don’t watch the programme Matthew Crawley is the somewhat earnest solicitor and heir to Downton!