Last week the Adam Smith Institute published my policy paper on reforming the UK’s sclerotic and highly damaging planning system.
The land-use planning system in the UK has created a housing crisis, stifled our economy and had a negative effect on our environment.
You can download the full report from the Adam Smith Institute.
If you want to engage in the lively debate, you can do so at Lib Dem Voice, here and here.
Hat-tip to Glum Councillors, a website that seeks to collate photographs of elected representatives looking serious and saddened by the state of the roads, litter and all the other stuff we have to deal with.
This photo won't look so good when reduced to a 2 inch square and run through the black-and-white Riso at the shed at the end of one of these guys gardens.
“The mystifying assumption that, by improving Britain’s education and training record, somehow unemployment will disappear is not just debatable; it is misleading at best, and at worst it is utter nonsense… The emphasis on formal qualifications alone without incorporating labour demand may thus lead to a bizarre situation where – like Germany – one ends up with probably the best qualified unemployed workforce in Europe…
[G]overnment has been too concerned to raise numbers entering higher education at the expense of its quality, and with no real economic argument to back this expansion…”
Thomas Lange, Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for International Labour Market Studies, Faculty of Management, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen – 1998.
The dole queue
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” - Ernest Benn
Tags: comedy, politics
So Chris Huhne (and ex-wife Vicky Pryce) is to be charged with perverting the course of justice as a result of allegations that the former Environment Secretary Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change allowed or persuaded his wife to accept speeding penalty points on his behalf in 2003.
Mr Huhne strenuously denies the charges (and one can’t help but wonder whether Ms. Pryce will be less keen to repeat her allegations now that she is being charged as well) but it has not saved him. He has been forced to resign from the Cabinet.
It’s an odd business, to say the least. Not the charges themselves – this matter needs to be investigated and, if there is a prima facie case, charges should be filed. What is odd is the fact that he has to resign now.
It is a fundamental principle of the rule of law that a person is innocent until proven guilty. In most walks of life, that would extend to whether one has to resign from one’s job as well. If one is accused of a crime, an employer might suspend a member of staff, to distance itself from the issue, but to sack a person (or expect them to resign) while they try to clear their name is usually considered to be unfair.
What is interesting is that different rules appear to apply to politicians – and to other public figures. On the one hand, there is no process for suspending a minister, or allowing them to step aside temporarily, while the matter is investigated. The minister must quit – end of. I suspect that this is a hangover from the origins of ministerial office, with the minister acknowledging their duty to protect the sovereign from embarrassment. It seems to be a bit harsh in the modern world. Chris Huhne, like anybody else, should have the opportunity to prove their innocence without penalty.
And if he’s guilty, he should be sacked, rather than being allowed to resign.
That being said, it has happened, and there is feverish speculation about who will replace him. Will Ed Davey come into the Cabinet? Will Norman Lamb replace Ed Davey as Employment Minister?
Both would be welcome moves, but people seem to be forgetting one obvious potential promotion. It is widely recognised that David Laws is ripe for a return to the front benches. Is this unfortunate event an opportunity to bring about the return of Laws?
Elsewhere on Lib Dem Blogs…