Author Archives: Neale Upstone

Opinion: Whose law is it anyway?

By Neale Upstone | Published 18th August 2008 - 9:39 am

Anyone who followed the recent Camp for Climate Action at Kingsnorth could have a range of views of the policing of that event. It could be anything from: “The police successfully prevented an extreme element from injuring protestors, police and horses” to “a legitimate and necessary protest went ahead despite an extreme element within the police force, who were committed to suppress it”.

For me, my experience of the policing of the camp is something I’m having some difficulty accepting. As a councillor in Cambridge, I work closely with the police and know the intentions of officers are overwhelmingly …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 11 Comments

Opinion: A performance to be proud of, but not to settle for

By Neale Upstone | Published 6th May 2008 - 9:03 am

A great set of local election results – but to say that we did “well” or “better than expected” is, in my view, an understatement.

On our resources, which do not include the money of (Lord) David Sainsbury (of Turville), or (Lord) Michael Ashcroft (of Tax Haven) or (Lord) Irvine Laidlaw, we’ve done fantastically. Apologies for the brackets, but I think we can say that their ‘titles’ are optional.

Can we do better? You bet!

Here in Cambridge, for example, I doubt that a single leaflet mentioned Nick Clegg’s name. I think they should have. Our local election campaigns should be …

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Posted in Local government, Op-eds | Tagged | 45 Comments

Opinion: The real 10p tax issue – the right to live and work as we choose

By Neale Upstone | Published 30th April 2008 - 8:50 pm

The whole fiasco about Labour abolishing the 10% tax rate is only the tip of the iceberg in Gordon Brown’s attempt to dictate an economy based on doing what he wants, rather than having the freedoms that we are entitled to.

If you’ve been on another planet the last fortnight, or having a ‘sanity break’ from the news, then here’s a summary:

Last year:
- The government announced that it was reducing the core income tax rate to 20%, and hidden in their announcement was that they were abolishing the 10% rate that this government introduced.
- People earning less than £18,500 would pay …

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Posted in Op-eds | 2 Comments