Yes to AV

Deciding how to vote in the AV referendum on 5th May has been a challenge.

Those of you who know me as a long standing supporter of proportional representation may be surprised by that. What’s complicated my thinking is the limited “proportional” nature of AV and its significance as a key plank underpinning the Tory-LibDem coalition. Its awfully tempting to vote NO to make political life even worse for Clegg and the LibDems (whilst they make real life worse for most of us).

In the end , however, AV, for all its limitations is a change to the voting system which may just help to restore a little bit of the public trust in our political system. A change that makes it looks less like MPs are trying to protect their own interests by keeping the system as it is. Unfair though that charge may be, that’s how a lot of people see it. And if that results in more people coming out to vote then that must be a good thing. A step in the right direction is better than no step at all.

AV has the potential to build a progressive, centre-left political majority at Westminster. The Tories oppose it for just that reason. Another good thing about it then.

Whilst I’m campaigning to elect Dave Stewart as MSP for Inverness & Nairn, there will be much more important issues to discuss. But on this one I’m clear.

Its time to say YES to AV.

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EMA Cuts Tell Us All We Need to Know

EMA (Education Maintenance Allowances) don't apply in Scotland.

In England, it gives up to £30 a week to 16-18 year olds from low income families attending further education courses.  A Labour Policy, its about paying for kids books, travel and subsistence.  To make getting a higher qualification just a bit easier.

Today, the Coalition cut it.

The same week as they are saying its OK for students to build up £36,000 of debt for a four year degree, they pull away the step ladder for the rest.  £30 a week really matters, when your folks' can't pay.

Tells us all we need to know about the real agenda.

Cameron and Clegg both come from a highly privileged background.  Its showing...

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Benefits should define Labour

An effective and enabling benefits system is for me a pillar of the kind of society I want to see.

There when you need it, supporting you and your family into work or education. Enabling you to develop to your full potential and play a part in your community whatever your personal challenges.

We need to drive cheats out of the system but above all we need to make it simpler. Recent estimates are that more than £3bn is wasted through errors and mistakes which dwarf the estimated loss of £1.5bn through deliberate fraud. Never mind the folk who don't get what they are entitled to because it's so daunting.

The Coalition seem determined to use benefit system reform as a blunt instrument to save money and drive people into low paid jobs. Incenting private companies like Experian to spy on our communities to achieve this is a shocking definition of "fairness".

But there is no point in Labour just criticising from the sidelines. We need to work out our own new ideas and reclaim the Benefit System for Labour in the same way as the NHS.

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Coalition must not be allowed to re-write economic history!

The constant repitition by LibDem and Tory ministers of their mantra that the coming savage cuts are all the result of "Labour's financial mess" risks becoming accepted wisdom if we don't start to counter it soon.  Remember how the Winter of Discontentt came to represent all the reasons Thatcher got support for so long?

Excessive public spending didn't cause the credit crisis; what caused it was a massive over indulgence in credit by the private sector, led by bankers and financiers far more interested in personal wealth and power than stable banking.  Labour - like every other government in the western world - had to pump £billions of public money into the banking system to stop it collapsing.  Now ordinary people will pay a huge price in service cuts, lost jobs and a VAT hike that always hits the poorest, whilst the City gets back to "normal".

Coalition ministers tell us there is no choice but to make savage cuts in public spending, to appease the same financial markets which got us into this mess in the first place!   But there is a choice if you want to make it.

What Cameron and Clegg are proposing is about idealogy.  They want a smaller public sector and this is their great opportunity to do it.

Labour needs to get back on the front foot and stop the re-writing of economic history that is going on.

Which of our party leadership candidates will take up the challenge?

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A Bridge too far, Danny?

When I said to comrades in Inverness last week that the real test of the new Coalition would come when it faced its first crisis, I didn't expect it to be upon us quite so quickly.

David Law, I think, has done the right thing but the elevation of Danny Alexander to be the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury must be a concern.

I don't know Danny personally, but I got to know him a little during the election campaign.  I liked him as a person and he is obviously a capable politician, as his election result shows.  Party politics aside, he did a good job during what must have been hugely tense and complex negotiations with the Tories to agree how they would share power.  But I worry for him now.

Senior government responsibility is much like football management. Mostly, you need to put in the learning in the lower divisions in order to to be able to lead and deal with the pressure at the top.  We now have the two most senior politicians in charge of shaping the economic destiny of this country both under 40 and with next to no real business or ministerial experience.  Whilst I don't agree with their politics, David Law had years of experience in the City behind him and the Tories' Phillip Hammond a successful business career as well as shadowing the role for a long period.  Was Vince Cable even asked, or did he not want to go there?

I notice also that none of the senior and experienced LibDems in Scotland seem to have been considered as the new Scottish Secretary.  Or were they not interested?

I wonder whether the Tories are working to a very smart strategy which is to have a coalition partner in place, willing to make cuts in return for power and who can be an expendable target for the blame when the masses get difficult.

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