We go into the general election on 6 May with trust in politics and politicians at an all-time low. And I can understand why: the years of broken promises, the expenses scandal, the feeling that politicians have become too remote from the people – they’ve all taken their toll.

That’s why I’m making this contract with you.

For too long, you’ve been lied to by politicians saying they can sort out all your problems. But it doesn’t work like that. Real change is not just about what the government does. Real change only comes when we understand that we are all in this together; that we all have a responsibility to help make our country better. This contract sets out my side of the bargain: the things I want to do to change Britain. But it also makes clear that I cannot do it on my own. We will only get our economy moving, mend our broken society and reform our rotten political system if we all get involved, take responsibility, and work together.

So this is our contract with you. I want you to read it and – if we win the election – use it to hold us to account. If we don’t deliver our side of the bargain, vote us out in five years’ time.

David Cameron
Leader of the Conservative Party

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David Cameron has set out the Conservative Party’s agenda for improving quality of life.

He said that after Labour’s failures the only way to achieve real change in this country was a new, strong Conservative government.

“Whether you’ve been a Lib Dem voter or a Labour voter or a Green voter – if you care about the environment, if you want action to improve your quality of life, if you care about civil liberties, if you care about people power, if you want a clean break from the past – vote Conservative”, he said.

Click here to read David’s speech in full

The agenda includes Conservative plans on the following areas:

• Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe
• Improve health and well-being
• Fight back against crime
• A more liberal, tolerant and open society
• Support for the arts
• Help people to go green
• Create a low carbon economy
• Make our energy supplies
• Create a green transport system
• Protect and improve green spaces
• Hand power from Parliament to people
• Hand power to neighbourhoods
• Hand power to communities
• Hand power to local councils
• Roll back the intrusive state
• Protect our basic freedoms
• Stop Labour’s database state

You can download the agenda here

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Jeremy Paxman’s full interview with Nick Clegg

Broadcast on Monday 13 April 2010.

Nick Clegg states on camera that an Inverness MP friend, must be Danny Alexander, says Inverness needs more immigrants!!!
He obviously has no idea of the number of Eastern Europeans who are in Inverness, can’t get jobs and are having to wait months for the benefit system to provide financial support – evidence available and already reported in the Highland News.

At the Hustings at Kingussie, last Friday evening, Danny Alexander defended this position and quite amazingly seems to be supported by SNP candidate John Finnie.

Whilst campaigning, immigration concerns have mainly featured in comments received from members of the electorate.

As a responsible parliamentary candidate, I have major concerns over the ability of the region to provide the numbers of jobs to go with such an influx of  migrants Given the problems caused to the education and health services due to the diversity of languages from migrants from all parts of Europe and elsewhere, we need to very carefully consider the real requirements of the area rather than making irrational decisions that could disastrously affect our local economy.

Incomers from the UK, Europe and the rest of the world will have to be supported by the tax payer provided Benefits system if they cannot gain employment.

With the thousands of houses proposed to be built in the region, Highland Council and politicians need to concentrate minds on meaningful private sector job creation before embarking on more ” flights of fancy”.
Jim Ferguson

In a bizarre conversation after the Hustings, SNP Candidate, John Finnie, who having stated that 10,000 persons are now on the Highland Council housing waiting list said ”we are all from overseas”, when asked the question how many of the ten thousand persons on the Highland Council waiting list were from overseas! When I said that I was borne in England Mr Finnie suggested that my blood line could have originated from Romania or some other country, so therefore I was from overseas …
A quite amazing statement!
Barrie Haycock

SEE ALSO

• Paxman grills Clegg on VAT rise(01.32)
• Paxman challenges Clegg on PM chances(01.59)

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David Burbage, Leader of Windsor Council,
January, 2010.

How we cut Council Tax by 4%

Our intention to deliver a lower council tax was made in our 2007 manifesto, which said we would aim to set a council tax increase under inflation each year.

Linking to September RPI guaranteed that pensioners in particular would end up being better off, year on year – it’s often their biggest bill and with a fixed income and low interest rates we are trying to make a difference to the old tradition of ever-increasing council tax bills.

With September 2009 RPI at -1.4%, an absolute cut was therefore required.

Without needing any front line service cuts – no silver bullet – by October we’d found £6.2m of savings to put into our programme. It might be easier to make service cuts to find savings, but we’re making savings by smarter budgeting and a lot of options considered and discarded. On top of this, we have cost factors, such as a swiftly rising (but important) safeguarding budget, that emerged after the case of Baby P.

We’ve incentivised our officers to examine their budgets since last summer, and by making it clear that we won’t accept cuts to front line services, or unacceptable hikes in fees and charges, have forced the pace on real organisational change in the back office.

There are no big hikes in our charges, no spending of reserves, and no cuts to front line services. In fact, we’ve introduced new parking discounts, increased our revenue contribution to the capital budget, and enhanced front line services including fulfilling a manifesto pledge to double the number of our community wardens.

The resulting budget has delivered us a 4% reduction in Council Tax, which we are passing on to our residents in full – they will be over £40 a year better off at Band ‘D’.

So why can’t other councils across the UK adopt the same approach???
Editor

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A transcript of the Prime Minister’s podcast on the Pre-Budget Report, recorded on 5 December 2009.

All our lives are being transformed by the digital revolution.

For many the internet and mobile phones are now seen as indispensible as electricity, gas and water.

And the wealth of information instantly available – literally at our fingertips – is giving you enormous power over the choices you make for you and your families. Whether it is where to do the weekly shop; which utility company to use; or who insures your car.

And in this new world, you rightly want a bigger say and more accountability in all the decisions that affect you.

Rightly, you also demand more control over public services – and the same level, the high standards, that you expect as consumers on the high street.

And that is why this government will ensure that each citizen has new guarantees and new rights: for example the personal guarantee that you will see a cancer specialist within two weeks and the guarantee that your son or daughter will have one-to-one tuition if they need it in English and Maths.

And in these challenging times it is vital that we protect those front line services which we all pay for, which we all value, and on which we all rely.

We value them because they are always there to teach our children; look after us when we are sick; and protect us from harm. They are part of our everyday lives but we should never take them for granted.

This is not a time for reckless experiments. We will harness the power of technology to further improve our hospitals, schools and police forces at the front line.

But the power of technology also allows us to secure better value for money. Already some GPs send text messages to remind people of upcoming appointments. This is helping the NHS save a substantial amount of the £600 million annual cost of missed appointments.

We are committed to giving parents of secondary school pupils guaranteed online access so they can see what their child is learning and how they are getting on – saving the cost of expensive materials.

There’s evidence to show that using online instead of sending paper through the post can save councils £12 a time; and using it instead of the phone up can save up to £3.30 a time.

Switching services online also frees up more staff to provide personal support and advice – including face-to-face, where it is most needed.

The opportunities for enhanced services and better value for money are enormous. So over the next five years we will make as many services as we can available to you online. And this has the potential to save at least £400 million a year.

It all means that you get a better service and the costs are kept down – so you win as taxpayers and users of public services.

And we are going to help more people to get online. There are now 6,000 public places with internet access in England, including every library, where there are more than 30,000 terminals, many community and adult education centres; and even some pubs.

But clearly some people are still excluded. So we will reach out particularly to mothers, older people, the unemployed and those who lack skills to ensure that they can use all the facilities that will be available. The savings we will make in this way are considerable but we will also need to do more.

And in the pre-budget report this week we will tell you how we will make the further savings needed to protect our front line services; cut the budget deficit and go for growth.

As always, our decisions will reflect our deepest values of fairness and responsibility. That is why we have raised the top rate of tax on those earning in excess of £150,000 in order to pay down the deficit and contribute to public services.

We are proud of what we have achieved over the past 12 years. And we are proud of the real help we’ve given people over the past 12 months.

But we will not sit back. And next week we will set out our bold and radical plans for ensuring a fairer, prosperous and sustainable future for Britain.

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City of Edinburgh Council are attempting to force vulnerable adults with learning difficulties, physical disabilities, mental health problems and hearing problems to transfer to new care & support providers against the will of many and with negligible consultation. Service users, their friends, families and support workers have grave concerns over many issues. We understand that Edinburgh Council has to make cuts. However, the most vulnerable people in our society should NOT be the first to suffer.

A Facebook page “Allow Vulnerable Adults the Right to Choose” has been set up

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=173591638203&ref=mf#/group.php?gid=173591638203

This is a general group – for concerned service users, for concerned families, for concerned support workers – and everybody else affected or who has an opinion on the process.

It’s a group for debate, and raising concerns with the process.

Have a look, and see if you think you can join up and support the campaign for the rights of disabled people in Edinburgh – all they are asking for is what they are entitled to – all their families are asking for is for the best possible, highest quality support for their families and the support workers are asking to be valued for the jobs they do – the “efficiency savings” hoping to be captured come from staff wages – staff training – and the “little extras” that make service users lives that bit better.

A petition asking the council to stick to their promise on allowing anybody unhappy with the process a Direct Payment is available at the following link – the council has been up the hill and down again on this one – performing u turn after u turn on this issue -

http://www.gopetition.com/online/31914.html

A video talking to affected service users and families is available here – please do watch it http://www.youtube.com/user/ianhood000

There is a protest tomorrow (Thursday) outside the City Chambers – details here – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=206312499049&index=1

http://www.ldascotland.org/docs/nov19.pdf

Hopefully see some of you there!

Iain McGill

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