It seems the Prime Minister is the only person left in the country who thinks there shouldn’t be a televised debate between party leaders at the next general election.

It would be an opportunity for transparency, to reinvigorate political debate, and to put party manifestos and leaders up against one another in a fair competition.

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Gordon Brown says there’s no need for debates because we have Prime Minister’s Questions. But, despite nearly always descending into farce and name-calling, at PMQs, opposition leaders can only ask questions about government policy. In a proper debate, each leader would be able to question both the other parties’ policies as well as championing his own.

Our politics is marred by profound unfairness. Big donations mean far too much is decided by which party has the biggest coffers. A televised debate would go some way to correcting that.

A debate wouldn’t advantage a party; it would advantage the people. It would be the voters’ opportunity to see the leaders competing to be Prime Minister promoting their policies and answering difficult questions about how they’d change the country.

It would bring in a wider audience than leaders could reach otherwise, giving more people the opportunity to make up their own minds based on the facts.

If Gordon Brown believed in the Labour party and his own record, he would be champing at the bit to hold this debate. I’m eager because I want people to know about Liberal Democrat policies, and I want the opportunity to explain why Labour and the Conservatives would take us in the wrong direction. Labour’s time is up, and the Conservatives think it’s automatically their turn, but I think in these difficult times we need to do something altogether different.

The author is leader of the Liberal Democrats

 

Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Shires has called upon Walsall’s Tory cabinet to recognise that if, at their special cabinet meeting on Monday 3rd August they decide to uphold their decision of the 15th July to close Sneyd Community School there will be “knock-on” repercussion’s for the local community.

At a meeting yesterday (Thursday) Ian said that any decision to close Sneyd School should not be taken in isolation. Closure threatens the future of community provision of which there are upwards of 4,000 users weekly as well as raising community safety issues and issues for the local economy.

“If the cabinet refuses to budge on the closure decision then they need to back that up with a wide ranging support package which covers not only the needs of students, parents, teachers and other staff at the school, but also the needs of those who provide and use community facilities operating on the Vernon Way site.

“Youth provision is woeful in the area, this also needs to be addressed as does the need to support local businesses which rely on the school for their very existence. ” he concluded.

Flooding came back to the service road alongside the Co-op at “The Square”, Lichfield Road, New Invention, so we’ve got back onto the council asking for them to resolve the problem.

I can almost predict the responses.

“What do you expect, it rained all day.” Well it does doesn’t it, especially during what is euphemistically called the “summer” these days. Even so pedestrians shouldn’t have to wade through flood water to get to the shops should they!

“The rain was particularly heavy, you can expect some flash flooding.” Flash flooding goes way, this hasn’t, it was still there at 10pm last night!

So Walsall council if you are reading this (as I suspect that you are) please, please admit there is a  real issue here and do something  permanent about it. I really don’t want to have to keep reporting this issue to you.

Pleck Ward Activist Mohammed Yaqub has submitted on behalf of residents living in and around Manor Road a 66 signature petition to Walsall Council demanding action to prevent parking on and around the junction of Manor Road with Dryton Street.

Mohammed helped to organise the petition after being asked by Manor Road  residents to help in their fight to get double yellow line markings around the junction.

“There have been a number of accidents caused by motorists parking on the junction” said Mohammed “and in-spite of repeated requests from residents for action, Walsall Council has remained silent on the matter. Hopefully this petition along with a number of photographs showing badly parked vehicles will help to convince the council to act” he concluded.

 

Nick Clegg

We must create a sustainable economy, build a fairer society and clean up politics for good.

Dear friend,

Ever since I became leader of the Liberal Democrats I have been travelling the country, holding public meetings, listening and talking to the people I meet. The economy is in a mess, people are losing jobs and everywhere I go, people are angry at the way politicians have let them down.

The two old parties don’t really want to change a political system that keeps them in power or challenge the bankers who got the economy into such a terrible mess. The next election will be your chance to tell them they’re wrong – your chance to vote for something different.

Many people believed they would get change for the better in 1997. Instead, under Labour, the gap between rich and poor has got bigger, our politics has got even dirtier, our civil liberties have been eroded, the environment around us is in danger and our international reputation is at a new low. Labour let us all down.

The Conservatives say they want change but all they really want is to keep things the way they are. They say they want fairness but demand tax cuts for millionaires. They say they want to protect the environment, but have linked up in Europe with people who deny climate change is a problem at all. They will promise everything and change nothing.

Britain is in the teeth of three crises: a huge banking crisis and recession, a rotten Westminster system abused by too many MPs for personal gain, and the threat of climate change. We need big changes to fix our economy, our discredited politics and our environment, yet both Labour and the Conservatives are letting the City, the House of Commons and polluters off the hook. No action against bankers’ bonuses. No action to give people the right to sack MPs guilty of breaking the rules. No action to slash emissions. They say just enough to get in the headlines, but when the spotlight moves on it’s back to business as usual.

I believe there’s a better way. This country can be fairer, it can be safer, greener, and stronger in the world. Only the Liberal Democrats have the ideas, the energy, and the ambition to provide the new hope the country needs. If that’s what you want too, after twelve years of Labour disappointment, turn to us. We carry the torch of progress now.

Despite all the gloomy news, there’s still real hope for the future – but only if we make a fresh start. We need strong leadership and a different kind of politics to make it happen. The way things have always been done has got us into this mess, and it will never get us out.

Above all, we must do everything to protect the next generation from the mistakes made today. For me, how we treat young children is the most important measure of what kind of society we want, what kind of values we hold dear.

Even in these difficult times, giving all children from all backgrounds the life chances they deserve will always be my personal priority.

So if you want things to be different, choose a party that is different. Choose the Liberal Democrats.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats

To see the full text, including a downloadable PDF of the document either click here.

 

We have received notification of Special Cabinet meeting Monday 3rd August 2009 to discuss findings of last week’s Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel on Sneyd Community School.

The recommendation is for cabinet to confirm its decision of 15th July 2009 to close Sneyd and that current education provision on the site ceases on 31st August 2012 and offers no extra help to parents of children transferring to other schools because such extra provision would have resource implications.

The report does not address the other concerns outlined by the Liberal Democrat councillors as part of the “call in” of the  cabinet decision of 15th July. Those concerns centred around the effect of closure on the local economy and provision of services to New Invention, Mossley and Short Heath.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader councillor Ian Shires is to seek urgent talks with the Leader of the Council Mike Bird to discuss the situation. Ian has also contacted the Sneyd Action Group requesting a meeting to discuss their reaction to the report of Children’s Services Portfolio Holder Rachel Walker.

Commenting this morning on his reaction to the report councillor Ian Shires said “I’m disappointed with the tone of the report and what appears to be a total disregard of the knock-on effects such a decision would have on the local area both in Willenhall and Bloxwich”.

New figures released by the Housing Charity Shelter show that housing shortage sees record number of under-15s living in cramped conditions, the figures highlight the record number of under-15-year-olds living in cramped conditions, with one in 10 children in overcrowded housing.

Shelter claim there are more than one million children in England now live in overcrowded homes, a rise of 54,000 in the last two years, the charity warned today.

The figures, calculated from the government’s annual Survey of English Housing, reveal the problem is particularly acute in London and among those living in social housing. One in five (331,000) children in London and one fifth (520,000) of those in social rented housing live in cramped conditions, while social housing in

London is worst hit. More than a third of children (234,000) living in social housing in the capital are in either overcrowded or seriously overcrowded homes.

Under the law, overcrowding is defined as two people of the opposite sex sleeping in the same room, unless they are a couple or at least one of them is under 10 years old.The legal definition, which has been in place since 1935, deems kitchens and living rooms as acceptable places to sleep and discounts under-one-year-olds as a person living in a property – those between one and 10 count as half a person.

The housing and homelessness charity said overcrowding was devastating for family life and health, with children up to 10 times more likely to contract meningitis as a result. Other medical conditions are more common in families who live cramped and overcrowded conditions; in particular children are more likely to develop mental health or related conditions.

Sam Younger, Shelter’s chief executive, said the problem of children living in overcrowded conditions in particular had been hidden for too long.

“There is no doubt that overcrowding has a massive impact on children’s health, safety and future prospects and can cause depression for parents struggling to cope in cramped conditions,” he said.

“With many children unable to study due to a lack of space, the impact of overcrowding is robbing them of an education and a fair chance in life.“The government must ensure enough affordable family-sized homes are built and introduce an updated definition of overcrowding that reflects a modern need for space and privacy.”

  Liberal Democrat Shadow Housing Minister, Sarah Teather said: overcrowding could ruin a child’s life. “We have a chronic lack of family-sized social housing and unless the government addresses this shortage, many more children will be condemned to life in crowded housing.

“We need a massive increase in the number of social homes to stop more families suffering the misery of overcrowded and unsuitable housing.”

I’m off on a site visit this morning with a highways officer from Walsall Council, nothing special about that, it’s one of those things you’d expect a councillor to do.

This site visit is a bit different, were’re going to look at the result of a response to a previous site visit a couple of years ago which resulted in a number of roads being resurfaced.

There in lies the problem, the particular road we’re visiting today was “tarred and chipped” about 12 months ago and dispite several sweeps residents still have to put up with grit being walked into their homes.

Cutting to the chase this site visit is about how your money is spent and whether or not what is done is good value for money. We suspect not and judging by our casework it’s an increasing problem as Tory front line service cuts begin to bite.

  Liberal Democrats held onto a strong third place in the Norwich North by-election.

  Thank you to Liberal Democrat activists in Norwich and around the country who supported April Pond’s campaign in the Norwich North by-election.
 
  The result saw Labour’s vote collapse. Having won the seat with 45% of the vote at the general election, they polled 18% on Thursday. This was a damning rejection of the way the Government is running the country and in particular Labour’s handling of the economic crisis.
 
While the Conservatives gained the seat, albeit with fewer votes than they received in 2005, the Liberal Democrats maintained a good third place, less than 1500 votes behind Labour. According to analysis by The Independent, a similar swing nationwide would see the Liberal Democrats increasing from 63 to 79 seats at the general election.
 
The Green Party will be very disappointed with their result. Despite talking up their chances of coming second or even winning, their candidate dropped to fifth place.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable warned on Sunday Live, Sky news against “panic cuts across the board” to tackle the public finances, saying parties must concentrate on key priorities.

“Any serious party going into the next general election is going to have to be honest about the scale of the problem in the public finances,” he said.

“Some of this will improve as the economy recovers but a lot of it won’t, it’s structural”.

He added: “We believe that the best way of dealing with it is not panic cuts across the board but setting out very clearly what priorities should be.

“The priorities for the Liberal Democrats would be tackling unemployment, as well as affordable housing and public transport.