MPs of all sides are objecting to IPSA proposals to increase their pay by 11%, alongside some less-reported minor cuts to expenses and a move to a career-average pension scheme, that make the whole package, we are told, cost-neutral.
I think most people will find it utterly incomprehensible that a time of pay restraint for the public sector and further squeezes on Government spending that IPSA should be recommending . I think it would be wholly inappropriate to get such a large pay rise when every other public sector worker sees pay
Danny Alexander went on the Andrew Marr Show this morning to talk about the Autumn Statement and the Liberal Democrats’ contribution to the economic recovery. If I had to pull him up on anything, it’s not getting in any mention of shared parental leave. No Liberal Democrat interview should be complete without it. It ticks all the stronger economy, fairer society, enabling people to get on in life boxes and is one of the best practical demonstrations of Liberal Democrat values in action that we’ve delivered in government.
He said that the proposed MPs’ pay rise would be wholly inappropriate when there’s pay restraint in other areas of the public sector.
In terms of differentiation from the Tories, he said that Liberal Democrats wanted more taxes on the wealthy, opposed what he called the tax penalty for unmarried people and opposed the removal of housing benefit from young people, which we had stopped in this Parliament.
He also confirmed that free school meals for younger children was a permanent commitment and reports that it was unfunded after 2015 were not true. He said the money was there but the work had not yet been done to allocate them to individual departments.
I’ve done a quick Storify which covers the main points of the interview.
Danny Alexander is featured in today’s Guardian Q & A. It’s a strange feature that is sometimes contradictory, sometimes very revealing and sometimes just a little too on message for comfort. But then, he’s not talking to Liberal Democrat members, he’s talking to the wider public so if there was no mention of a stronger economy or fairer society, it would probably be a bit of a missed opportunity. When we are sick of hearing something, it’s only just starting to get through to the wider public. He even recognises himself, though, that he might over-use “The mess Labour left …
Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has emailed Liberal Democrat members to highlight what we have brought to the Autumn statement which, he says, is “packed full of Liberal Democrat ideas.” Here it is in full.
Our greatest achievement in Government has been bringing our economy back from the brink of Labour’s disaster.
Today, we have delivered an Autumn Statement that clearly shows we are making real progress in rebuilding our economy after the ‘car crash’ Labour years. Growth is improving. There are record levels …
By Stephen Tall
| Thu 5th December 2013 - 10:15 am
It’s autumn statement day. George Osborne will stand at the despatch box of the House of Commons this afternoon and present his pre-budget report. The Guardian’s Martin Kettle sums up what it’s all about:
For the Conservatives, today is about redefining themselves – in the face of a run of seriously disappointing polls – as the party that feels the voters’ pain over energy prices, house price inflation, wind farms or payday loans – while still, boosted by yesterday’s strong economic surveys and the possible return of the UK’s AAA rating, managing a recovering economy more soundly than Labour. For
By Joshua Dixon
| Wed 27th November 2013 - 8:57 am
For the first time in five years, the UK has seen a 4% rise in unsecured borrowing – the figure now amasses to an eye-watering £216bn. A report by Price Waterhouse Coopers revealed that this £8.5bn rise was almost entirely due to the rise in student borrowing. Students starting University, on average, are set to be straddled with debt that of £40 – 50,000.
As a graduate, already worrying about clearing my debt, the Government has given me more cause for worry. This week, the sale of the mortgage-style student loans taken out between 1990 and 1998 took place. …
Yesterday the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury minister,Danny Alexander, who is, of course, a Scottish MP, has written to Alex Salmond, First Minister in the Scottish Parliament, to warn him of the consequences of independence. He wrote:
The White Paper published tomorrow must address the tax rises or spending cuts required to balance the books in an independent Scotland.
The father of Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has launched a scathing attack on the “bedroom tax” in the annual report of a Scottish housing association.
Di Alexander is the chair of the Lochaber Housing Association and in its annual report, he has this to say about the Bedroom Tax and other aspects of welfare reform:
The Association has also been facing up to the considerable challenges presented by Welfare Reform changes. The first of these to be implemented – the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ – is particularly unfair in that it penalises both our tenants and ourselves for
In today’s Telegraph, Danny Alexander is ebullient about the signs of economic recovery. He says this revival would not be happening without the Lib Dems.
The decision of Lib Dems to form the coalition is the bedrock on which the recovery is being built. Without a government prepared to do the right thing to tackle the deficit and support job creation the progress we are starting to see would simply not have happened.
Some people thought the Lib Dems wouldn’t stick at it. Now they know different. We’ve worked with the Conservatives, not just to take tough decisions, but to make the right decisions for the long term good of Britain.
Three weeks ago when I was appointed as Secretary of State for Scotland many journalists and commentators (and even a few posters on Lib Dem Voice!) forecast a period of strife ahead as the “bruiser” from the Whips’ Office took over at Dover House.
I am not expecting anyone to say they were wrong but I hope that maybe some of them are feeling just a little sheepish this weekend.
The threat to the future of the petro-chemical plant at Grangemouth was one of the most serious to face Scotland for several years. It also produced a degree of political unity and …
I missed it yesterday, but have just caught up with Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander’s (rather flailing) attempts on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme to justify the second stage of the Coalition’s ‘Help to Buy’ scheme for folk wanting to buy their own house. You can listen to it here or below.
There are two stages to ‘Help to Buy’. The first, announced by George Osborne earlier this year, offered anyone purchasing a newly built home costing less than £600,000 the opportunity to apply for a 20% government-guaranteed loan with just a 5% deposit. The Economist explains the rationale:
The basic economic thrust makes sense. Rental rates are high in Britain, meaning punishing payments to landlords. Given that a mortgage can be cheaper, wider home ownership could put more disposable cash in Britons’ wallets. In an economy where private consumption accounts for four-fifths of spending cutting housing costs in this way is likely to boost GDP. And since this part of Help to Buy is tied to building, it should work even if the new nests end up in the hands of buy-to-let landlords: a bigger housing stock should drive down rents, and provide jobs for the workers that build them.
The big problem comes with the second stage of ‘Help to Buy’, which breaks the explicit link with new-build housing. From this month, pre-owned property also qualifies. If widely taken up, it will stoke demand among eligible buyers but do nothing to increase supply: a recipe for house price inflation in many areas, especially London and the south-east. That will be good for the equity of home-owners like me, but rubbish for those not yet on the housing ladder who find themselves once again priced out of the market. Here’s The Economist again:
The prospect is unnerving, especially since the new part of the scheme may well distort banks’ incentives by driving a wedge between what they lend and the risks they face. With the housing market already rampant in London—up 20% annually in the trendiest parts of the city—and pepping up in the rest of the country too, Help to Buy is adding heat to a market that does not need it.
The Coalition appears to be banking on the winners from the scheme being happier and more numerous than the losers. Depressingly, there’s a chance they’re right. After all, Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ did serious damage to the country’s social housing stock, but was (unsurprisingly) highly popular with those it helped. That said, the latest polling on ‘Help to Buy from YouGov suggests the public, post-credit crunch, is more alert to the dangers of house price inflation than it was: by 58% to 17%, voters reckon the new scheme risks creating a housing bubble.
Danny thinks it’s all worth the risk: “Our housing market has to be opened to a wider range of people,” he says. Don’t we all? The way to do that, though, is by increasing housing supply, not by the kind of blatant market-manipulation the Coalition (rightly) slams Ed Miliband for when he makes similarly ill-thought through promises to fix energy prices.
By Caron Lindsay
| Wed 25th September 2013 - 8:01 pm
I know, I know, it’s been a week since the Glasgow conference and I still haven’t got around to writing my usual round up post. You can put that down to there being a by-election in the offing in Dunfermline. I’ll warn you that this post is quite long, but if you make it to the end, you will be rewarded. Click on the last link. Anyway, before it gets more than embarrassingly late to do this, here are my random thoughts:
Nick got it right
My heart sank in the run-up to Conference as I read countless newspaper articles suggesting that …
By Caron Lindsay
| Wed 25th September 2013 - 1:30 pm
If you’ve followed Scottish politics over the last few years, one theme will be very clear. The SNP Government will centralise anything that sits still for more than 5 minutes. Nowhere is this more true than in the centralisation of the Police and fire services.
When Scotland’s eight Police services were merged into one, we were assured that local policing autonomy would be protected. After all, you wouldn’t use the same tactics in Avoch as you would in Aberdeen or Glasgow.
Earlier this year we saw heavy handed raids on saunas in Edinburgh, which had previously been treated with a degree …
Speaking at the Liberal Democrat Autumn Conference in Glasgow on Tuesday, Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander highlighted four key points:
1) the economy is improving, and in no small measure that’s down to the Lib Dems’ commitment to provide strong government within a coalition government;
2) that Labour “derailed the economy” once and will do so again, given the chance;
3) that the Tories’ obsession with hire-and-fire and anti-Europeanism put the recovery at risk;
4) that Lib Dems are making a real difference – taking the low-paid
Now he wants to see if that can be extended. As a first step towards that, petrol retailers are being asked to supply details of the prices they charge .The Government will then use that information as the basis s of a further application to reduce the duty in those areas.
A few weeks ago, I wrote that the Telegraph’s attempts to make another expenses scandal out of MPs claiming for travel for their children between London and their constituency as they are allowed to do under the rules. For me, I am happy to pay as a taxpayer to pay this price to ensure that Parliament has parents of young children within it.
While there were some clearly egregious examples of abuse of the expenses system which shocked us all in 2009, I have always said that politicians, in the main, whatever party they are from, are decent people who
Yesterday the Lib Dems published The Trident Alternatives Review. According to Danny Alexander, “it is the most thorough review of nuclear systems and postures the UK has ever made public. It is ground-breaking – thanks to the Liberal Democrats and our insistence that Trident alternatives must be examined.” That may be: but this is a war the party will not win.
We oppose the like-for-like replacement of Trident. We believe there is a ‘nuclear ladder’ of capabilities. Alternative systems or postures could bring
Now that the dust has settled on the Spending Round, he has a rare moment to catch his breath and reflect on how it went. He says things went “more smoothly than many people outside this room thought when we started out on it”, but admits it was at times not easy.
“You are dealing with finding £11.5bn of savings. Of course those discussions are going to be difficult, they
The Commons votes tonight on whether the government should exercise the impenetrably-named ‘EU Justice and Home Affairs mass opt-out’.
While it sounds dry and technical, this decision is hugely significant as EU ‘JHA measures’ have been crucial in securing justice for hundreds of British victims of crime. These instruments have been prominent in the extradition of attempted London bomber Hussain Osman from Italy under a European Arrest Warrant, in coordinating via Eurojust the investigation into the Annecy killings and in Europol’s EU-wide investigation, ‘Operation Veto’, into match-fixing and corruption in sport.
The mass opt-out is not an ingenious new attempt by the …
The Lib Dem leadership — as I noted here yesterday — is determined to get on the front foot on the economy. This autumn will see a leadership-proposed motion backing further capital investment (“within the fiscal envelope”) while retaining the commitment to deficit reduction. Nick’s letter this week is coordinated with that message, and in particular the importance for growth throughout the regions of the UK. Here’s what he has to say…
On Thursday I visited the Toyota and Rolls Royce factories in Derbyshire to announce the
Be warned: we’re under starter’s orders for the general election. Today, the Lib Dem leadership sets out its plans on the economy for approval by the party conference this autumn, striking a neat balance between a strong defence of the Lib Dem record in government and a recognition that much still needs to be done to get the economy growing.
The motion to be debated in Glasgow in September can be found at the foot of this post. Tabled by …
If there is one issue that could unite Social Liberal Forum co-chair Gareth Epps and Danny Alexander, it’s beer. Gareth is a huge supporter of the Fair Deal for your local campaign, as any self-respecting CAMRA member should be. Danny is also a huge supporter of the micro breweries in his constituency. I spent a very pleasant evening sampling Loch Ness Brewery’s wares with his staff last Summer and hope to do the same next month.
This week was the week of the Comprehensive Spending Review. Perhaps more importantly for the Coalition’s self-confidence was the erasure from the economic records of the double-dip recession. Nick’s letter this week is bullish about the Lib Dems’ record on the economy: “Creating jobs. Stopping the build up of Labour’s unsustainable debts. Getting the economy back on track”. It is also savage of Labour’s record, not just in government but their last three years in opposition, too: “They don’t have a credible economic plan and it’s no wonder people don’t trust them with their money.”
Money, jobs and investment dominated the agenda this week. On Wednesday, the chancellor set out details of the Spending Round: the last set of savings we will have to announce in this Parliament. On Thursday, Danny Alexander followed up by announcing massive new investment in our roads, rail, housing and infrastructure.
There’s an interesting interview with Tory defence secretary Philip Hammond in this week’s House magazine. Two snippets in particular will be of interest to Lib Dem readers.
Let’s start with the defence department and horses. In the lead-up to the spending review when tensions were spilling over between the treasury and the spending departments, Danny Alexander remarked in an interview: “Of course, in a department that has more horses than it has tanks, there are room for efficiency savings without affecting our overall military output.”
Yesterday Danny Alexander announced a major increase in funding for the Troubled Families programme, with an extra £200 million to be invested into the service.
He says:
Reforming how services are delivered is going to be a central part of this week’s Spending Round.
The Troubled Families programme is a radical example of how, by spending a bit more in certain areas, we can save much more in others and by doing so create a stronger economy and a fairer society.
Extending this intensive help to 400,000 more families will enable us to tackle
Vince Cable is refusing to accept deep cuts to his departmental budget without a guarantee of billions in funding for job-creating capital projects, as arguments over this week’s spending review reached a new pitch.
With just three days before George Osborne is due to announce £11.5bn of cuts for 2015-16, the business secretary was said to be in no mood to back down in a dispute he regards as crucial to the government’s economic credibility.
Cable is arguing, in talks with Treasury ministers and officials, that the coalition must have “a strong story to
Lib Dem chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander did the rounds of the TV studios yesterday to promote the Coalition’s actions to increase tax transparency. You can see his BBC News interview here. On Channel 4 meanwhile, he was also quizzed about whether he thought the UK should help arm Syrian rebels: he said the case was unproven that would help the country at this time:
We saw Defence Secretary Philip Hammond give Nick Clegg a hard time on the Snoopers’ Charter the other day. Now our own Danny Alexander has given Hammond and Michael Gove something to think about by trashing their view on leaving the EU. It is a measure of how much the media have got used to Coalition that this isn’t being played up as a huge split. It’s accepted that there are radical differences in approach between the two parties on certain issues. It would be nice to think that this would lead to more intelligent public debate between members of …
Now that Clegg is in the most stable position of all the party leaders – Cameron has overseen fractures with gay marriage and Europe; Miliband is facing his Waterloo over whether or not to accept Coalition spending plans – this Balham tête-à-tête sparked some mischievous speculation. With Alexander’s star rising, did the Italian dinner involve a Granita pact for the 21st century? If so, it would – in the event of a hung parliament in 2015 – see Clegg step down for Alexander to take over
Our position in 2008, when we walked out the Commons after being refused a debate on an in-out referendum, was that we wanted a referendum to decide whether the UK should stay in the EU in the light of the Lisbon Treaty. The Conservative position was that a referendum should decide the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty itself. The difference was perhaps subtle, but it was important. If the public voted no in the Conservative referendum, …
Nigel Jones @Mick Taylor, I agree we must be concerned about income inequality in current circumstances, though overcoming this is about taxing the rich, better public serv...
Nigel Jones @Mick Taylor, you are right to focus on strategy since we have plenty of policy, but i think we also need a vision and better messaging. It is easy to have stro...
Nigel Jones The New Deal graphic is very helpful but of course not perfect. As to preventing Reform from winning, we need to be an anti-establishment party as Chris Bowers ...
Nigel Jones It is certainly true that community politics is insufficient for long term gain. That was my experience in 13 yrs as a councillor and still active locally; at o...
Katharine Pindar Splendid stuff, well done Yorkists! 'The New Deal' seems a great idea in itself. Your graphic shows, however, how much work will need to be done to assert ourse...
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Raising a flap about letterboxes
Arriving at one of East Finchley's ghost platforms
Restrained
Chase Park fair photos
A swamp of lies and disinformation
Nigel Jones 
Katharine Pindar 