Floru for Europe

Brian Paddick voted for the extreme left - what about the London LibDem MPs ?

Even I was flabbergasted when I heard LibDem mayoral candidate Brian Paddick admit on BBC London that he gave his second preference vote to Left List. I mean, it's well known that when and where it suits them LibDems are to the left of the Labour Party. But I didn't realise they went to such extremes!

Left List was the name under which the Respect Party fought the London elections. George Galloway has now officially cut loose from the party he founded and has set up his own grouplet. It all sounds terribly like my university days, when the Trotskists, the Maoists and the Leninists all tried to win favour with a few dozen extreme left minded students.

So Paddick was secretly an extreme leftie all along. Now I do wonder, which parties did the other LibDem London MPs vote for with their second preference vote? Come on, Vincent Cable, Edward Davey, Lynne Featherstone, Simon Hughes and Susan Kramer - tell us.

Filed 6 May 2008

Wheeler wins the right to sue the government on the Lisbon Treaty referendum - please help

Stuart Wheeler this morning obtained permission to apply for judicial review of the government's decision not to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. The action will say that the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary created a legitimate expectation that a referendum was to be held. If you are able to, please contribute financially to this noble cause. One individual, however wealthy, should not have to pay on his own for a court action on which could depend the independence of these isles. Click here.

Filed 2 May 2008

Brown joins the EU’s drive for a less flexible labour market

 

The EU’s move to give full rights to temp workers after six weeks will make the EU less competitive. It will reduce the number of temp jobs which allow less qualified people a foot on the labour ladder. The UK has resisted this for five years but now the government wants to reach a deal. Once again the EU is looking inwards and not outwards.

 

According to today’s FT, the government is holding secret talks with the EU Commission to reach an agreement on a 2002 EU proposal to create less flexible labour markets. A majority of EU countries want to grant temps full conditions and pay after six weeks in the job. This is strongly supported by the European Trade Union Confederation. Business leaders say that full rights for temps should only arise after they have been in the job for six months. The UK and a handful of northern European countries have tried to block this EU move.

 

Now the government is negotiating to meet the EU’s demands. The EU would allow a derogation from the rule if there are collective bargaining mechanisms in place where unions negotiate on the temps’ behalf. Brown wants to set up such a forum in which a deal would be reached by way of collective bargaining with the unions. There is little incentive for the unions to agree to this as the government has effectively lost the battle in Europe and a negotiated deal would give the temps fewer rights than what the EU offers if no agreement is reached.

 

Temps will suffer: their contract will not be renewed after six weeks. For those who choose to work as temps there is no problem. But temp work is often a means by which less qualified people get a foot on the labour ladder. Making it more difficult for them to find such a job is an attack on aspiration.

 

Making the labour market less flexible in a world of free competition means that there will be fewer European jobs in the future. The Directive proposes minimum EU-wide standards to create a level playing field for companies in different Member States. Once again it does not seem to have occurred to the Commission that there exists a world outside the EU with which we are trying to compete. Once again, the EU looks inwards. What we need is a global open view.

Filed 9 April 2008

Lisbon Treaty: The Great LibDem betrayal has come full circle

The LibDem Lords have decided to vote against a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in the Lords. In the Commons they already abstained. Now they have come full circle in their betrayal of their election promise to hold a referendum, and will vote against it.

This is quite humiliating for Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem Leader, who has been unable to make his peers follow his policy. It remains to be seen whether Lords McNally, Shutt and Thomas of Gresford, who are LibDem shadow cabinet members, will be asked to resign. Earlier LibDem front bench MPs had to resign to vote for a referendum against Clegg’s instructions (to abstain).

Filed 3 April 2008

The latest on Livingstone sleaze

The very splendid Greg Hands MP (Hammersmith & Fulham) has made a complaint to the Electoral Commission about a donation from a property developer to Livingstone. Livingstone championed the developer’s plans for a new 46-storey skyscraper.

Gerald Ronson (the tycoon jailed for the Guinness share-dealing scandal) donated £4,990 to Livingstone - £10 below the £5,000 threshold at which donations must be publicly registered with the Electoral Commission.

The electoral Commission is now considering the complaint. This latest sleaze allegation comes on top of the scandal surrounding Livingstone’s close aide Lee Jasper and LDA contracts which allegedly channeled £3million of taxpayers’ money to organisations which appear to have done little in return.

For more on this latest scandal: Times Online and Daily Mail

Filed 19 March 2008

Will the last CEO leaving the country turn off the light?

Brown’s punitive tax regime is killing off the economy. Today the Financial Times’s front page carries an article about the decision of Yahoo to move its European headquarters from London to Geneva – for tax reasons. Earlier Google and 2006 Electronic Arts (games publisher) were among a plethora of companies which have moved out of London and the EU.

One of the greatest modern myths is that the economy did well under Labour (under the Blair years, at least). When we study the statistics we notice moderate economic growth throughout that period – but also a clear downwards trend in that growth. At the same time borrowing has gone up, and public spending and taxes are at their highest level ever.

We must cut taxes dramatically to make the economy grow again – to benefit all.

Filed 14 March 2008

Labour government prizes first time buyers out of the market

Labour tax policies will drive ever larger parts of the population into social housing. According to Metro (10 March) stamp duty for first-time buyers has almost doubled in the last five years. The biggest rise was in London, where house prices are highest and the average stamp duty bill has shot up to £8,675. One in five first-time buyers in the south pay 3%, which adds a minimum of £7,500 to their purchase.

The Conservative Party – the party of aspiration - wants to lift the threshold of stamp duty to £250,000 which would allow 90% of first-time buyers to escape the tax.

Filed 12 March 2008

The cost of the EU

The Daily Mail reports that by 2013 the net contribution of each UK household to the EU coffers will be £232. Before Blair signed away part of the rebate it was £70 lower.

 

This is only the direct contribution to the EU budget. The indirect cost of the EU through over-regulation is much higher though difficult to measure. When we compare the economic growth of the EU with that of other developed countries, it is clear that the EU is lagging behind. But how much of the decline in growth can be apportioned to national measures and how much to European measures? The impact of European over-regulation is higher is northern European countries who usually adhere more strictly to the rules – and tend to “gold-plate” them by adding additional over-regulation.

 

For the time being the EU still mainly occupies itself with managing decline rather than with the creation of wealth for all through tax cuts and reductions in regulation.

 

Filed 11 March 2008 – based on article in Daily Mail of 11 March 2008

The Cost of Livingstone and the avant-garde of Conservative council policy

 

Another splendid and thoughtful speech by Boris this morning, hosted at Bloomberg’s glamorous City headquarters. We were reminded of the increase in the mayor’s tax since his re-election, and of very many other cost increases which punish Londoners extra hard. I didn’t know that London has the lowest owner/occupancy rate in the country. Boris pointed out that London gets a raw deal from central government – we receive a much smaller amount back than what we contribute to the national pot (“I want my money back?”).

 

In the public I met Cllr Sephen Greenhalgh, the larger than life Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council. Since gaining a majority H&F have set out on an ambitious programme to reduce the council tax to the Wandsworth level (the lowest in the land) within two terms. They will not let the people down: the savings will be found by cutting waste and providing value for money. Now there is council policy to get excited about. If they succeed I think they will be in power for another fifty years.

Filed 10 March 2008

 

Copyright Floru 2007