All,

Believe it or not, the Liberal Democrats have produced a campaign song for the upcoming General Election. If you’d like to buy it, it’s available from iTunes here:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/well-be-change-that-works/id361692550

It’s actually quite good, with a nice rousing chorus at the end! You may have heard it if you saw Nick Clegg’s speech last week at the Lib Dem spring conference.

For those of you who don’t have iTunes and want to hear it - I’ve got it as a ringtone on my phone - so you’ll get plenty of chance to hear it out ringing through Shipston over the next couple of months (well it beats my usual Hawaii 5-0 theme)!

I can’t wait for a folk version though……..

Philip

All,

 The latest Focus is currently being delivered and can be download here.  As usual it contains lots of information about what your local Liberal Democrat District Councillor, Richard Cheney, has been up to - and news from the Liberal Democrats in the area.

Apologies if you have not received your copy yet - please remember it is delivered by local volunteers.  If you can deliver future Focus leaflets to your street or area, please give me a ring and let me know!

 Regards,

 Philip

All,

I was reminded this morning that my site’s graph was now a little out of date, so I’ve updated it (see right).

As the graph shows, the Liberal Democrats in the Stratford on Avon constituency remain well placed to beat the Conservatives at the next General Election - with the results from this week’s County Council results putting us in a strong second place. If enough Greens and Labour supporters voted tactically, John Maples would no longer be our MP.

Embarrassingly for Labour, they came a poor fourth across the constituency, with the Greens easily outstripping their vote.

Regards,

Philip

All,

The poll says:

Conservatives 40% (down 3%)
Liberal Democrats 25% (up 4%)
Labour 22% (down 4%)

(if there were a General Election).

The Telegraph goes on to say:

Nick Clegg’s party has emerged relatively well from the MPs’ expenses scandal.

The latest poll will worry local Conservatives who have seen support slipping away over the MPs’ expenses scandal in recent weeks.

Regards,

Philip

All,

I get regular questions asking what Liberal Democrat policy is. I’ve uploaded a handy pocket guide to Lib Dem policy here, so click on the link for a good read!

Regards,

Philip

All,

Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has been having a series of meetings with members of the public around the country for some time. Perhaps uniquely he does not know who’ll actually turn up or what the questions will be in advance.

Liberal Democrats want to answer real questions from real people, and although I can’t really go to Nick’s lengths - please feel free to contact me using my details on the right.

If you’d like to see a video, please click below.

Regards,

Philip

All,

I’ve uploaded a copy of the Liberal Democrat Economic Recovery Plan here. Unlike this discredited Labour Government, and the Conservatives who have no clear policies on what they would do with the British economy, Vince Cable has led the way during this recession. Our policies are clear, costed and supported by many independent observers - please read them if you’d like to know what our commitments are.

Summary of the Plan

1. Massive investment programme to create jobs and help the environment
2. Cut taxes for struggling families so they have more money in their pockets
3. Keep people in their homes, so they don’t need to fear unfair repossessions
4. Lower energy bills so people can afford to heat their homes
5. Action to help people who lose their jobs or have debt problems
6. Ensure government-owned banks are run in the public interest to help keep businesses afloat
7. Reform banking and the City so this can never happen again
8. Action to deliver future economic stability
9. International action to reinvigorate global trade
10. New priorities for Government – cut waste and invest in education and families

Regards,

Philip

All,

Lib Dem campaigners are keeping up the pressure on Gordon Brown to do the right thing for the Gurkhas. For many years, Brown and the Labour Government have treated retired Gurkha soldiers in a dreadful fashion. Some Gurkhas have even been deported by the Government they served.

Following the successful Lib Dem vote in Parliament, Mr Brown should, at last, allow retired Gurkha soldiers to remain in the UK.

Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg said, “The Lib Dems are proud to have backed the Gurkhas in their campaign.” “If someone is willing to die for our country, they should be allowed to live in our country.” “Gordon Brown must now abide by the will of Parliament and treat Gurkhas with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

If you want to support the Liberal Democrat campaign, click on this link.

Regards,

Philip

All,

Sorry about this being cut and pasted from a press release, but it does tell you want we think about this afternoon’s budget.

Philip

Responding to Alistair Darling’s Budget, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

“Today we got a pick and mix Budget of recycled announcements from a government skilled in raising people’s hopes but incompetent at actually delivering help.

“This Budget is a political supermarket sweep of random promises, without even a hint of a plan or any likelihood the promises will be put into practice.

“The biggest disappointment in this Budget is its failure to sort out Britain’s unfair tax system. To put money into people’s pockets to help them make it through this recession.

“Britain’s taxes are too heavy on those who can least afford it. And too easy to avoid for those who know how.

“The 50p rate will further encourage the very wealthy to avoid tax unless we tackle the unfair loopholes they exploit.

“The Liberal Democrats would get practical help to people who are struggling and cut the vast majority of people’s Income Tax bills by £700, paid for by taking aggressive action to clamp down on all the loopholes and exemptions that benefit the richest people and biggest businesses.

“We would take big choices about what government should and shouldn’t do.

“With a shocking deficit this year of £175bn we need a national debate about what the state can and cannot afford in the future.

“That is the responsible way - the honest way - to reduce spending in the years ahead and avoid painful higher taxes.

“But Labour is out of ideas and out of steam.

“Today they have condemned us to years of unemployment and a decade of debt.

“The country deserves something different.”

Read a summary of the party’s Economic Recovery Plan at www.LibDems.org.uk/RecoveryPlan

All,

Hundreds of people in Shipston will be taken out of income tax altogether by new tax proposals launched by the Liberal Democrats. And thousands more will see their income tax bill slashed by £700 a year.

The plans were launched by Party Leader Nick Clegg on 20th April who said that they would boost family budgets battered by rising food, power and transport prices. The plans call for the personal tax allowance to be raised to £10,000

Many families on low income in Shipston will benefit from this tax cut. They will be lifted out of income tax altogether.

People earning over £10,000 will pay £700 less income tax a year, paid for by ending the loopholes and tax avoidance schemes used by the wealthy and big corporations.

Ordinary people are struggling because of the recession. Now is the time to make a far reaching and permanent change to the tax system that benefits those on low and middle incomes. Liberal Democrats want to see more money left in the pockets of ordinary people rather than taken away by the Government.

Philip

Liberal Democrats have uncovered the Governments latest installment of ‘Big Brother’ society with plans to monitor activity on social networking sites. Home Office minister Vernon Coaker revealed the shocking proposals in a series of exchanges with Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Tom Brake.

In the admission, Vernon Coaker disclosed that social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace may be forced to retain private information about users’ web-browsing habits including the name of every person they correspond with on the site. This mass-surveillance strategy will be executed under a terror strategy guise, even though almost half the British population - some 25 million people - are members of social networking sites and are unlikely to have any links with terrorism.

The illiberal move has been attacked by Liberal Democrat MPs, security experts and civil liberty groups alike with Tom Brake describing the proposals as, “the most expensive snooper’s charter in history”. “It is deeply worrying that they now intend to monitor social networking sites which contain very sensitive data like sexual orientation, religious beliefs and political views. ”

Tom Brake added that, “Given the Government’s disastrous record with large IT projects and data security, it is likely that data will leak out of every memory stick, port and disk drive when they start monitoring Facebook, Bebo and MySpace.”

You can back the Liberal Democrat campaign to restore people’s privacy and freedom at http://freedom.libdems.org.uk

Philip

Some people have seen the economic crisis coming for years. Lib Dem Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable MP was warning back in 2003 that the reckless behaviour of the banks would lead to serious trouble.

But Labour and Conservatives chose to ignore the growing problem. Even as recently as April last year, a Government minister was describing Lib Dem warnings on the economy as ‘colourful and lurid fiction’ and a ‘hysterical over-reaction’.

Both Labour and the Conservatives got it terribly wrong. Had Gordon Brown followed the advice of the Lib Dems to tackle irresponsible banks, many of the economic problems of the UK would have been avoided.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives are still clueless on how to get the economy moving again. They have very few policies and their priority if they won the election is a tax cut for millionaires.

Labour let this mess happen. The Conservatives have no solutions to the crisis. Only the Liberal Democrats are proposing real help to with tax cuts for low and middle income households, and a massive homes and jobs investment plan.

The Tories … are failing in this duty [to put forward policies]. The third-party Liberal Democrats have been a far more fertile source of ideas and policy. (Financial Times 10th March 2009)

Philip

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not normally a Daily Mail reader (I think everyone knows my politics by now), but sometimes they do make a lot of sense! I was browsing their site today and came across this:

MailOnline article

It describes the Labour Government’s new ‘e-borders’ scheme, designed to predict terrorist suspects from their travel habits. Among the things they take into account? Ordering a vegetarian meal on a plane, traveling with a foreign born wife and making a last minute reservation. One of my closest friends is a vegetarian, who is married to an Austrian and often travels to Austria at short notice - so I’ve told him it might be easier if he:-

a) starts eating meat, or
b) considers a divorce (although this might be a little harsh for my God-daughter).

OK, perhaps I shouldn’t be making jokes about our safety, but this is a similar system to that used in the US which is well known for getting it wrong most of the time. More worryingly, the Government will keep the details it collects for up to 10 years, and share it with any Government department it chooses to. I think we all have the same worries about the safety of our personal data in this Government’s hands.

If you are worried about the way the Labour Party wants to take our freedoms away, check out the Lib Dem ‘Freedom Bill’ website using this link.

Philip

All,

Now that the weather has improved, local volunteers are delivering the latest Liberal Democrat Focus. If you’ve not received yours yet, I’ve uploaded it to the Focus Archive

If you have any comments or suggestions, would like to join the Liberal Democrats or deliver Focus, then please contact me.

Philip

It’s probably time to let you know a bit about Liberal Democrat national policies.  Families are facing a difficult winter.  Rising mortgage bills, the fear of unemployment and high heating costs mean that the shockwaves of the financial crisis are being felt in households across Britain, as well as in Shipston.  When the banks were in trouble, they got rescued.  Millions of families who are about to find themselves in trouble must be helped too.  The Liberal Democrat economic recovery plan can be read here.

Philip

The local press carried a report recently that John Maples MP had changed his mind about supporting the Climate Change Bill in the House of Commons.  Liberal Democrat District Councillors, including Richard Cheney and Bob White put forward a motion at the District Council
meeting on 14th July pointing this out and asking Council to re-iterate it’s own support for measures on climate change.  Needless to say the Conservatives put forward an amendment (which was carried, since they have a majority on the Council), which started:

‘Council notes that John Maples MP made a thoughtful and well informed speech in the 2nd reading debate on the Climate Change Bill.  While he did not question the fact that global warming is happening he argued that the predicted consequences have been greatly exaggerated and that many of these can better be met by adaptation than by the Kyoto process of drastic CO2 emission reductions’.

And yet the Conservatives still have the nerve to say, ‘Vote Blue, Go Green!’

Philip

Date:             Thursday 10^th July 2008

Time:              7pm - 8.15pm

Venue:            Malvern Theatres,

                       Grange Road,

                        Malvern,

                        Worcestershire, WR14 3HB.

RSVP- Richard@richardburt.org

MAKE IT PUBLIC- An open questions and answer session with Nick Clegg MP Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Upon becoming Leader in December last year, Nick Clegg spoke of creating a new type of politics, a people’s politics: open, accessible, and helpful in people’s everyday lives.

Wanting to listen as well as lead, meetings such as these play an important part in making politicians more accessible to the public. Come and put your questions on matters to you to Nick Clegg MP. Anyone can attend; ask any question, on any topic. If you are concerned about the environment, British Foreign Policy, Transport, the NHS, this is your chance to have your say.

This is a direct conversation with people – no spin, no hand-picked audiences, and no planted questions.

If you would like to attend please RSVP to richard@richardburt.org, stating your name and the number of seats you would like.