David Miliband does not understand the Liberal Democrats or their voters

The Labour leadership race has highlighted the sheer hypocritical views that the five contenders have.

They voted for the illegal war in Iraq to take place and for the billions of pounds to be spent wasted on that same war and yet now they want to be leader some of them have distanced themselves so far away from the decision you would think they voted with the Liberal Democrats at the time.

More recently we have seen the blatant lies and sheer hypocrisy about the reorganisation of NHS24, being replaced by NHS111, despite this being a Labour Party manifesto pledge both John Prescott and Andy Burnham went on the attack against the Liberal Democrats/Conservative coalition government.

They are taking people for fools in opposition in much the same way as they did in Government and unfortunately many people are still believing their shameful lies.

How do these Labour politicians live with themselves when they blatantly try to deny the last thirteen years when they were in government?

Well today we see David Miliband interviewed on Politics.co.uk and already we see he has no understanding of the Liberal Democrats nor of their core supporters.

Mr Miliband believes Lib Dem tensions hold the key to bringing down the government, but his comments may come as a surprise to the party's left-wing figurehead Jon Cruddas, who endorsed David Miliband over Ed Miliband last month.

Jon Cruddas said just last month;

"Attacking the Liberals is wrong. There's a danger of us spraying too much lead across the forecourt and not really thinking about how we need to regroup,"

Liberal Democrats and their voters know that they disagree with some of the announcements made by the conservative part of the coalition government, however they also know that things would be much, much more right wing if the Liberal Democrats were not part of this coalition government.

900,000 people will no longer pay income tax, the ending of child detention and reform of the political system with a referendum on fairer votes for starters.

Going into the election the Liberal Democrats made clear that they had four key priorities: fairer taxes; a fair start for children with extra funding for disadvantaged pupils; a comprehensive clean up of our politics, including a fairer voting system; and a green, sustainable economy.


Thanks to Lib Dem involvement, the Coalition Government will deliver on each of these.

There are also a large number of other Lib Dem policies and pledges that will now begin to make a real, positive difference to people’s lives because of our role in the Coalition Government.
These include everything from rolling back the surveillance state and giving people back their civil liberties, to prison and NHS reforms, fairer pensions, the ending of child detention and the scrapping of the third runway at Heathrow.

You can read more about what the Liberal Democrats in Government have achieved HERE.
 
So, David Miliband we will not take lessons from you with your 13 years amnesia problem nor will you split our Party.

John Prescott, Labour and the truth about NHS Direct

On Saturday I blogged about the breaking news that the coalition government were planning to scrap NHS Direct and asking whether this in fact was the right decision.

Well it looks like the proposed changes will only improve the current service - straight away the new 111 service will be free to call unlike NHS Direct now, you pay for that privilege.

Where NHS Direct can only highlight other services, when you call NHS 111 you will be able to book a GP appointment or go straight through to local out of hours services. If you do need an ambulance the 111 service will cut out the need to go through the 999 service assessment.
Since Saturday the story has moved on a great deal, and I do hope and appeal once again that in future the Minister or Ministry responsible either announce these major policy shifts through parliament or at the very least announce it to the media in a proper manner.

Labour, especially via mouthpiece John "I want to be treasurer of the bankrupt party" Prescott have seized on this and are setting up websites claiming to Save NHS Direct.

In fact yesterday I ended up having a spat with John Prescott on twitter.

Leadership contender Andy Burnham MP said at the weekend of the announcement;

"The health secretary's statement will stun people across the NHS.

"It is yet more evidence that Andrew Lansley is on a vindictive mission to break up the NHS, ruthlessly dismantling services before alternatives are in place."

The reason Andy Burnhams comments, and the argument I used with John Prescott is that Labour are NOT being honest with the voters (again).  Actually they are being complete hypocrites.

That is not a comment I make lightly.

On page 35 of this year's Labour Party manifesto, sits the following paragraph:

"A new, national 111 telephone number will make non emergency services far easier for people to access and book."

Would the Labour government if still in power have had this 111 service running alongside NHS Direct?

Of course not!

Labour were planning to scrap NHS Direct themselves and replace it with a 111 service.

Yet Andy Burnham accused Andrew Lansley of being on a "vindictive mission to break up the NHS" when he would have done exactly the same thing himself.

John Prescott argued with me on twitter that "40% of NHSD staff are nurses - 1400. Your plan = replace them with call centre advisors. Ours was to change number."

What John Prescott omits there in his answer is that 60% of the staff are call centre advisors already.

They are taking people for fools in opposition in much the same way as they did in Government and unfortunately many people are still believing their shameful lies.

Labour close to bankruptcy - why is the co-op bank helping them?

Thanks to a tweet this morning from GetLabourOut I went on to read their blog post, Labour – Mismanaging Even Their Own Finances which in turn pushed me to read the piece in the Guardian titled John Prescott: Labour 'on the verge of bankruptcy' which in turn provided me with more information to write the following blog post.

I know the topic of the funding of political parties is an emotive topic for many members of the public.  Whether political parties receive state funding or not?  Should unions and big business continue to bank roll Labour and the Conservatives? Should cash in brown envelopes or legitimate donations receive favours in return?

But a political party being on the verge of bankruptcy is another area of conversation completely, especially given the political party we are talking about is Labour, the party that governed Britain for thirteen years and during the major banking crisis.

According to the former Deputy Prime Minister (a position now held by Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg) John Prescott speaking to The Guardian on Thursday, said:

"The Labour party stands on the verge of bankruptcy. We are more than £20m in debt, facing a long-term decline in membership and a crisis in funding."

Now, for a senior Labour politician to admit this is one thing, but John Prescott, sorry Baron Prescott of Kingston upon Hull, is currently campaigning to become the Treasurer of the said close to bankruptcy Labour Party.

The Labour Party governed the UK for 13 years and during the biggest banking crisis ever seen.

That banking crisis has led to banks closing the doors on small and medium businesses, rather than supporting and helping them at this crucial time.

Day after day we continue to hear politicians telling us that another small business in their constituency has unfortunately closed down putting more people onto the unemployment register - never a pleasant thing to face, trust me, I have been there.

Thankfully now that Liberal Democrats are in Government the topic of banking reform is high on the agenda and being acted on by Vince Cable MP, a real pity that Labour's Alistair Darling didn't do anything when he had the chance.

However, reading John Prescott's interview, one thing really stood out for me.  In the second paragraph, Baron Prescott said:

"We are only kept alive by the Herculean work of party staff and volunteers, trade union contributions, high value donations and the goodwill of the Co-op bank."

It's the final five words that caught my eye - goodwill of the Co-op bank - do you see my connection here now?

Here we have a bank that is happy to show goodwill to a political party £20 million in debt and yet the banks collectively are still failing our small businesses by not supporting them and offering loans to these companies to help them through this delicate time.

Thankfully the Labour Party is no longer in Government and therefore no longer mismanaging the finances of the whole country (just their own party's finances).

Let us hope though that any small or medium business customers of the Co-op bank needing help at this time receive the very same goodwill they apparently are showing the Labour Party.

John Prescott visits Labour's Scottish phone bank

So today John Prescott is in Edinburgh trying to stem the votes before he heads to Glasgow for the Labour one day conference tomorrow.

On Prescott's blog earlier today he said he will be joining the phonebank.

Well, he has now appeared at the phonebank, obviously Labour are a wee bit short of campaign funds in Scotland!

That's just the one phone then John, hardly a bank......So Mrs. Moffat, how will you be voting?

The day John Prescott read my blog and Taylor Dayne sent me a twitter message

Today has been a bizarre day, first John Prescott the former Deputy Prime Minister read my blog post about the hypocritical Tories and lobbyists, and then twittered the message around his followers.

Then Councillor Daisy Benson and I enjoyed a little fun banter about singers called Taylor, and lo and behold Taylor Dayne contacted us both on Twitter.

I am 42 (phew, said it out loud) on Saturday and Taylor Dayne was a big huge part of my life in the 1980's, when I was coming out and clubbing near enough every night, yes, seriously, practically every single night so her contacting me on Twitter is a big thing for me today.

Tell it to my Heart was the big hit for me back in 1988, feel free to buy it, download it and listen and yes, thats what I was dancing to back in the day when I was 20.

I am soooooo, excited it is untrue, it has made my birthday, Taylor Dayne, thank you so much.

Labour's hypocrisy on Sir Fred Goodwin

I really do think Gordon Brown and others in the Labour Party are being completely hypocritical on this issue and just jumping on the bandwagon.

My personal view, is that Sir Fred Goodwin should give a percentage back, a massive percentage back - at least 90%. Yes, I really do mean this, the man along with his Non Executive Directors and the senior management team of RBS should be utterly ashamed of themselves!

However, we must remember that the Labour Government have known about Sir Fred's pension, and the amount it was since last October - so for five months they said nothing about it but as soon as the public get hold of the amount and their anger is apparent good ole Gordon Brown jumps on the nearest bandwagon passing by Downing Street.

Although, the former Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott seems to be on the bandwagon as well, so will he be giving his pension up as one of the Senior Government Ministers who has served during the time when Labour brought the banks down?

I know my pension figures have plummeted over recent months, although I don't have the credit of bringing a bank to it's knees like Sir Fred but I know as I look at the figures my total pension would be around a few thousand now, and I know some of my investments would have been in banks.

So, my humble message to Sir Fred, is do the decent thing and give your pension to charity.

Do it because you are a decent human being, rather than because the band wagon jumping hypocritical Government tell you to do so.