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Is Laws set to return as Clegg’s consigliere?

By Angela Harbutt
March 10th, 2011 at 1:09 am | 2 Comments | Posted in coalition, Liberal Democrats

 

Get ready to break out the champagne.

 The Independent reports in today’s paper that David Laws looks set to return to the heart of the Coalition Government. We at Liberal Vision can only pray the report is true. His presence has been truly missed.

According to the Inde, Nick Clegg and David Cameron have had private discussions about appointing Mr Laws to work alongside Oliver Letwin and Francis Maude in the Cabinet Office. 

 Amusingly the Daily Mail describes the role as  “..Mr Clegg’s ‘consigliere’ in Whitehall.” . Oh I wish.

The Inde reports, more soberly, that David will be  taking on responsibility for “co-ordinating and driving through all aspects of the Coalition’s policy agenda”  (a job currently undertaken by Danny Alexander).

Danny has been a good and loyal friend to Nick Clegg  for some time – so it would seem unlikely that he will raise any objections to Nick’s plans to return David to the heart of the Coalition. Especially as it comes with senior Tory approval. Surely its a win-win? Danny gets to focus more clearly on his work at the Treasury, whilst Nick gets one of the Lib Dems greatest minds (and Orange-booker) working on Coaltion policy (and future Lib Dem policy no doubt). 

The post is unlikely to be a “full cabinet position” – (that might upset the “Tory-Lib Dem balance” (yawn)),  but would allow David to attend Cabinet and would have influence over all areas of policy. That should be enough to be going on with.

As the Inde rightly points out, any comeback would be dependent on David being cleared by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards which is, as far as we can tell, STILL investigating whether David broke expenses rules. So when exactly is the investigation going to be concluded? Perhaps the conversations between Dave and Nick are an indication that the investigation is finally drawing to a close.

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David Laws – Your country needs you

By Angela Harbutt
May 29th, 2010 at 11:13 pm | 16 Comments | Posted in Uncategorized

As much as David Laws may hate me expanding on Andy’s timely but short post I cannot let this matter pass without adding my own views.

David Laws’ resignation is nothing short of a disaster for this country.

It was his vision, his fine mind, his sheer brilliance that brought such a shine to the coalition. It will be a much poorer Government for his leaving it.

I am confident that the Parliamentary Standards Commission will find that the definition of “partner” was indeed ambiguous and open to interpretation – and David Laws will get a clean bill of health. Why?

1)It is very clear to any that worked in and around the Lib Dems that David Laws DID NOT share a social life with Mr Lundie. 2)David Laws has said that they have separate financial arrangements. 3)They had not undertaken any ceremony of any sort celebrating their “union”.

From what I can see, therefore David Laws has a very strong case that the rule was badly phrased and open to interpretation. In David Laws view, Mr Lundie was not his partner as laid down in the rules. I cannot see how David Laws is anything other than “technically” correct – on this matter.

In these “whiter than white days” . We also have to ask however did he flout the “spirit” of the rules?

Here I say Yes perhaps he did – but with huge mitigating circumstances.

1. The rule about renting from (rather feebly defined) “partners” only came into effect in 2006. So the figure of £40,000 is almost certainly wrong.

2) I understand that he claimed considerably less than he was entitled to claim.

3) Most importantly we should consider the motivation of the man. This was a man – not seeking to personally enrich himself – he did that in the city many moons ago. This was a man seeking to keep his private life – private.

Between 2001 and 2006 his claim was entirely legitimate. And he claimed.  When the rules changed in 2006 had he suddenly ceased to claim rent from Mr Lundie – any low grade idiot would have put two and two together and drawn the inevitable conclusion about the nature of his relationship with Mr Lundie. The idea that David Laws could have “confidentially”asked for clarification from the claims office ( as some have suggested he should have done) is to show ignorance of the system. Be in no doubt that had he ceased his claims in 2006 when the change of rules occurred -( or indeed even raised it with the wrong person “confidentially”)  the rumour mill of Westminster would have been in overdrive. He would, in old-fashioned terms, “been outed” there and then. So he almost certainly maintained the status quo on his claims to protect his privacy.

This is not a typical “expenses scandal”. He claimed less than he could and sits sat in cabinet amongst many who had committed much worse “errors of judgement” over their expenses and got re-elected by their constituents.

This is about a man’s decision on how to manage his privacy.

I say again. I think it is a disaster that he has resigned. I hope this has not caused him to turn his back on public life. I trust he will return to this position as soon as he has been cleared by the PCS. I pray that his return is not too late. And I fear that even a few weeks or months away , may be too long.

David Laws. Your country needs you.

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Quangos-a-go-go

By Angela Harbutt
May 27th, 2010 at 1:56 pm | 13 Comments | Posted in UK Politics

david-laws3

So the coalition have settled in, and our very own David Laws has got his chainsaw out. Well, NO actually, it’s a scalpel we are told. 

(I am hoping that like most good gory video games he’ll reach level 5 and swap that “scalpel” for something that’s more appropriate for the task – like a chainsaw gun at the very least, but anyway…)

Wielding his trusty “scalpel”, Laws is stating that  the government will find £600million from Quangos. That’s really not very much when you consider what we spend on them. According to the (previous) government’s own figures, “in 2008/09, total expenditure by Executive NDPBs (Non Departmental Government bodies),   was around £46.5bn. Of this, around £38.4bn was funded directly by Government”. And that’s excluding charities and pressure groups that get direct Government money (e.g. ASH that gets direct funding from the Health Department).

Well, if they are not going to do drastic – can they at least do fun? After all there’s not going to be much to laugh about in the coming months (except England failing to reach the quarter finals of course).

Following on from the rip-roaring success of the TV Leaders debates, I rather like the idea of reviewing Quango’s publicly. I am thinking a hybrid Saturday night TV show along the lines of “Britain’s Got Talent” with a splash of retro “Noels House Party” thrown in. “Quangos-a-go-go” has a nice Saturday night feel to it.

The idea is that each week we are offered a selection of quango’s that are each given two minutes to present “their case”. If the judges panel – David Laws, George Osborne and Tessa Munt (got to have a gorgeous blond!) hit their “reject” button before the two minutes are up, a vat of custard is dropped on the quango-istas from a great height (the custard , not the vat) and they are sent duly packing.

If they survive the full two minutes, the TV audience gets to vote by phone for how much money they get. We keep being told that “we are all in this together” so why not involve the public in the decision? And we may just raise enough number from the phone calls to pay for some of them.

Which should we see up first on the show ? (ignoring the obvious ones like Regional Development agencies, BECTA, Standards Board for England etc)….

Sustainable Development Commission

Call it what you will, this is nothing more than a  Government sponsored campaign for increases in environmental policy. It is just madness to fund an organisation to lobby yourself. Definite custard bath time.

National Policing Improvement Agency

Supposedly created to remove layers of bureaucracy from policing. Ha! that worked. More seriously, any organisation that says its purpose in life is “to make a unique contribution to improving public safety” and then singularly fails to explain exactly HOW they are going to do it, deserves all the custard it can get. And when you read phrases like“ten year strategic framework“..”High potential development scheme“..”simplified competency framework” and “talent management“…You just know its time to put on your wellies.  They spend an eye-watering £535 million (mostly on spin by the looks). Definite custard bath.

National College for School Leadership

This was set up to improve the quality of head-teachers. If you want better head teachers, pay them more. The £105million it spends would go some way towards it. Worringly this particular group has quango-creep. It now calls itself  “The National College for Leadership of Schools and Childrens Services”. STOP right now! One thing that might just save it from the custard… On the front page of its website it says, rather endearingly.. “A New UK Government took office on 11 May (no shit!). As a result the content on this site may not reflect current government policy.” Hmm that might be why Laws/Osborne gang have already chopped £16million of its budget.

Commission for Rural Communities

This organisation grandly pronounces that its “statutory purpose is promote awareness of the social and economic needs of people living and working in rural communities“. The “rural community” may have needed its own commission under Labour – but surely the Tories love the countryside? Can’t see us needing this anymore.  And let not forget that they were the folks that appointed the”Rural Advocate” to to put the case for rural people . That’s just downright insulting to us country folks. Custard.

 Finally, and this is my favourite (and was not my spot – but came from a friend of a friend..)

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board

Firstly any quango with “development” in its title should go. Secondly, it likes to be known as the “AHDB” – That’s not a good sign when you WANT to sound like a menacing bug lurking in the corners of the local NHS hospital. But otherwise this sounds worthwhile enough. Until you realise that our money actually goes on nutty things like “The Potato Council” – whose most successful campaign in 2009 was National Chip Week (promoted by Keith Chegwin – did we really pay him money for this?). Apparently the campaign managed to increase the sale of frozen chips by 11%. (Best not tell the department of Health that). They also have a whole raft of mini websites www.lovepotatoes.co.uk, www.potatoesforcaterers.co.uk, www.potatoesforschools.org.uk www.lovechips.co.uk, www.potatoposters.co.uk. It’s a monster gone mad. Definite candidate for the custard bath.

I could go on,  but for now I will let Andy return to the more important stuff at hand…Unless of course you have your own favourite quango you would like to see in the custard bath. If so please leave us a comment.

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David Laws heckled by old socialist for Lib-Con “bobtail army”

By Julian Harris
May 27th, 2010 at 11:40 am | 10 Comments | Posted in UK Politics

From Hansard. ‘The Minister’ is our very own David Laws.

“Mr Dennis Skinner (Bolsover) (Lab): Is the Minister aware that not a single member of the Cabinet has turned up to back him in this statement here today? They are all part of this rag-tag and bobtail army-not one of them is here. Can there be a more pathetic sight than this Liberal Democrat, who campaigned against cuts in 2010, now hammering the young and the old and putting people on the dole as a member of this rag-tag and bobtail Government? Get out!”

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David Laws-political genius!

By Angela Harbutt
May 12th, 2010 at 2:40 am | 14 Comments | Posted in Election, Liberal Democrats, UK Politics

Word has it that a 24 page document will be released later today containing the Lib-Con deal. Private word also has it that this will be largely the work of one man- David Laws.

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