All politics is local

March 10th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

In one of the Commons committee rooms there is a huge portrait of Joseph Chamberlain, the Birmingham MP and father of the infamous Conservative Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain.

“Our Joe” as I am told he was affectionately known by his supporters, was also the Mayor of Birmingham at the height of municipal greatness; perhaps local government’s finest hour!  For example, Chamberlain established a municipal gas supply by forcibly purchasing the two private gas companies on behalf of the city for £1,953,050, even offering to purchase the companies himself if the ratepayers refused.

In 1876, Chamberlain also forcibly purchased Birmingham’s waterworks for a combined sum of £1,350,000, creating Birmingham Corporation Water Department, having declared to a House of Commons Committee that “We have not the slightest intention of making profit…We shall get our profit indirectly in the comfort of the town and in the health of the inhabitants”.

By the late nineteenth century, these kind of improvements were being replicated in towns, boroughs and cities around the country. Local government had the power to act – and it did.

Looking at local councils now, they are huge organizations – often the largest employers in their communities after the NHS; and yet they are, sadly, a shadow of their former self.   In part, it is because they are less ‘local’ than they once were.  The large authorities created in April 1974 may have made sense in terms of introducing proper economies of scale, but at best it made councils seem even more remote from the communities they seek to serve.  My own council, Tameside Metropolitan Borough, in Greater Manchester is a collection of nine towns – five from the old Lancashire side of the river Tame; and four from historic Cheshire.  I’m sure you can imagine the civic rivalries!

And in the brief time I was a councillor (from 1996-2008) I have seen leisure centres, housing provision and other key functions lost to non-elected bodies, Trusts, or even centrally managed by Whitehall.

The main parties all say they support localism – it’s the new buzzword, but what does it mean, and why do so many policies put forward by the parties contradict it?  If we believe in localism, then let’s stop capping Council Tax increases.  I know in some areas, that may be unpopular but I say let the people decide if they want to pay more for better services; if they don’t, then vote for someone else. It may actually start to increase local election turnouts.

In fact, isn’t it a scandal that our councils are so heavily dependent on central government funding that in order to increase their annual budgets by just one percent, they have to increase the Council Tax by over four percent!

Others argue that the Council Tax is unfair and regressive – and I understand that position – but want to replace it with a local income tax which – wait for it – would be administered through PAYE or self assessment via HM Revenue and Customs, effectively stripping local authorities of even their revenue collection functions. More centralisation!

There is a real danger that our local authorities will merely be administrators for central government.  The time is now right to have a debate about what powers our local councils should have; what size our councils should be, respecting community ties but maintaining those economies of scale (maybe by joint commissioning); and let’s have a proper discussion about how local services are funded.

If “all politics is local” then let’s start to prove it!

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Farewell Michael Foot (1913-2010)

March 4th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

I was genuinely saddened to hear of the death of the former Labour Leader, Michael Foot, yesterday.  Without a doubt, his death marks the passing of one of the great parliamentarians of the post-war era.

Born into a Liberal family, Foot became a committed socialist after he witnessed extreme poverty in Liverpool.  He subsequently came to London and worked for both Tribune, and for Beaverbrook as a highly successful journalist and writer.  Foot gained his first great claim to fame as the author of Guilty Men, the 1940 polemic against the pre-war appeasers.

In Labour’s 1945 landslide victory, Foot unexpectedly won Plymouth Devonport for the party. After losing Devonport in 1955 he succeeded his hero, Aneurin Bevan in Ebbw Vale after his death in 1960.

Michael Foot represented a tradition in the Labour Party that often fell out with the party’s leadership, and he even had the whip taken from him in the early 1960s.  He also shunned high office, despite several offers of ministerial posts from Harold Wilson; he finally he relented to be Employment Secretary and then Leader of the House under Callaghan.

Much has been written about Foot’s great oratory (a skill sadly lacking in modern politics) and for me, one of his most memorable Commons speeches had to be the one he gave as Leader of the House of Commons on 28th March 1979, when he closed the ‘No Confidence’ debate on the night the Callaghan Labour Government fell.

He became my party’s leader in the aftermath of that 1979 election defeat and Callaghan’s resignation the following year, as the candidate most acceptable to both wings of the party.  It is easy to be critical of Foot’s leadership not least because he led Labour into near oblivion in the 1983 General Election where we came close to third place behind the SDP-Liberal Alliance!

I actually take the more sympathetic ‘Kinnock view’ that Michael Foot did his best to hold what had become a divided and self-indulgent party together in extremely difficult circumstances.  In any case, the Labour Party survived (which was by no means certain back in the early 1980s) and after 18-years in the political wilderness, eventually returned to government.

The 1997 Labour manifesto couldn’t have been more further removed from that of 1983 – or ‘the longest suicide note in history’, as Sir Gerald Kaufman famously dubbed it.

Whatever Michael Foot thought of Tony Blair’s new Labour project, he continued to passionately support the Labour movement and the Labour government, and loyally kept quieter than I imagine he would have done in the 1950s!

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Middle-East: Peace in our time?

March 1st, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

Foreign Affairs is one of my main interests in Parliament; I have a particular interest in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and, importantly, in the middle-east peace process intended to resolve it.

Israel and Palestine is a fantastic region, with a wonderfully rich history, beautiful scenery and really great people and it is nothing short of a tragedy that, for the past 60 years, Arab and Jew have been in conflict over the same relatively small piece of land.

I want to start this post by saying something which has, sadly in my opinion, become very contentious on the left in British politics in recent years: I consider myself to be a ‘friend’ of Israel.  Of course, as parliamentary chair of Labour Friends of Israel, you might expect that statement to be a given.   Actually I consider myself equally a ‘friend’ of Palestine and the Palestinian people, too.  I don’t actually see why one should cancel out the other, particularly if we believe in a peace process where ultimately there will be two viable and secure states side-by-side, as I do.

I first visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories in 2007, and I have since led delegations of British MPs to the region in both 2008 and 2009.  We get to meet a cross section of key people in Israel and Palestine including Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, US Lieutenant General Dayton and Quartet Representative, Tony Blair; through to the aid agencies, charities, teachers, doctors working hard on the ground for peace. We get from them all a clear understanding of the issues and the work being done to bring the two sides together.

Every time I visit the region, I am struck by the real optimism for the future despite all the seemingly intractable issues still on the table left unresolved.  It is also very easy to focus on the things not going right and to ignore that real progress is actually being made too.

For example, in recent weeks, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to a US proposal for indirect peace talks with the Israeli government. That has to be a good thing.  The British government has also continued to call for the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority towards a two state solution and the Egyptian and Jordanian leaderships have made positive statements on the need for renewed talks.

Movement and access, and the availability of water, continues to improve in the West Bank due to increased Israeli-Palestinian Authority cooperation.  Indeed, the visible changes in Ramallah just between my visits in 2008 and 2009 were remarkable.  The West Bank economy is growing by over 7% a year, assisted greatly by the lifting of movement restrictions as the British and US trained Palestinian policing units take more control over internal security; and it shows!

There is the problem of Hamas in Gaza, of course.  This is a ‘two state’ peace process, not ‘three states’ but Palestinian unity is proving very difficult to achieve, despite Egypt’s best endeavours to bring Fatah and Hamas together. Equally, as life for ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank improves considerably, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains dire with Israel and Egypt severely restricting the quantity and type of goods allowed into the territory in an effort to prevent Hamas from manufacturing and firing rockets.

As a result, much of the extensive infrastructure damage caused by last winter’s Israeli military operation is yet to be repaired. The British government rightly pledged £54 million in emergency aid over the last year to meet the needs of the people of Gaza, and in December 2009, DfID pledged an additional £5 million for teachers for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides schooling for 206,000 children in the territory.

So some things are improving – albeit I admit very slowly on the political front – and there are still some very difficult issues to be resolved on Jewish settlements, final borders and on the eventual status of Jerusalem. There is also a niggling fear in the minds of ordinary Israeli citizens that, despite the recent period of quiet, rocket attacks could easily be resumed from both Gaza and Lebanon.

Let me end this post on an optimistic note: In a CNN interview on 7 February, King Abdullah of Jordan urged the USA to give the peace process its “undivided attention”, asserting that “the overwhelming majority of Israelis and Palestinians want a two-state solution as soon as possible”.  He’s right.

Can a lasting peace be achieved soon? With that renewed effort, I very much hope so!  The opportunities and benefits for the region are there to be grabbed.  After 60 years of conflict, the time is indeed right.

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England, a constitutional conundrum

February 25th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

To anybody who is still sceptical about the use of ‘new media’ in political debate, take note; I’m still pretty much engaged in the English devolution debate started on Twitter a few weeks back, continued on my blog and now continuing to rumble on, on Twitter!

Only today, the SNP minority administration in Holyrood has announced draft plans for a referendum on either full Scottish independence or what they are calling ‘devolution plus’ (giving further responsibility to the Scottish Executive for matters still currently the remit of Westminster).   What happens to the draft referendum bill, let alone what the result of any referendum would be, is purely a matter of political speculation at this stage.  What I want to explore is the English dimension to all this.

As I have previously said, I am a Unionist.  I want the United Kingdom to continue as a sovereign nation state. I believe that we are stronger together than we would be apart.

But the United Kingdom as we know it today, evolved over centuries– and must continue to evolve and adapt if it is indeed to survive for the future.

Wales was effectively conquered in the 14th century, and legally subsumed into England during the Tudor period.  Scotland has been conquered, regained political independence, itself secured the English crown peacefully, and in 1707 voted to join England in a political union creating a whole new country, Great Britain.  Ireland too, joined this political union in 1801 to create a ‘United’ Kingdom, and ever since those various points in history the debate about ‘independence’ and ‘Home Rule’ have dominated domestic politics – right through to this present day.

Britain has never actually been a unitary state.  Scottish law remained different to that in England and Wales, and for many years Northern Ireland had its own Parliament despite still sending Members to Westminster too.

Without a doubt, the UK of 2010 is politically a changed place.  Devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is a firm reality and – with a few hiccups along the way – has been largely successful for those nations.  But there is also clear unfinished business in our constitutional arrangements.

Firstly, we in England need to decide what we want our relationship to be with the other home nations.  We need to decide how best our own political arrangements can be improved to allow decisions to be taken at the appropriate level of government, and in a fair way.  As I said previously, I have an open mind about how to address the ‘English question’.

I am not a fan of regional assemblies and never have been.  I don’t believe my constituents want one and it would be largely irrelevant to them.  Had we had the referendum in the North West, I would have campaigned for a no vote.  I can, however, see some logic in having a devolved English Parliament with similar powers to Holyrood, and a much smaller UK Parliament for all reserved matters.

And, though I still think it would be largely unworkable, because most bills do have a Scottish or Welsh dimension (however small), I can also see the logic of having the status quo at Westminster but with only MPs from English constituencies voting on ‘English-only’ matters.  I’m sure other ideas can be added to this fairly inexhaustive list!

Perhaps a good model to adopt would be the Australian and Canadian federal system where each state (provinces in Canada) have their own legislature, government and Premier, and then a Federal Government and Prime Minister overseeing all the national politics. We are three-quarters the way there anyway!

Whatever the model, perhaps the starting point needs to be the establishment of a cross-party, cross-civic society Constitutional Convention.  Let’s thrash out a devolution settlement for England and put an agreed position to the people and let them decide how we wish to be governed for the future.  And, for someone who wants to defend the Union, importantly let’s debate what England’s political relationship should be within a modern United Kingdom.

Let that debate continue…

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Andrew’s addendum

February 24th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

POLLS UPDATE:

Late last night on Twitter, @toryatsea (yes I do have quite a few Tory friends on Twitter, I know!) was bemoaning the ‘poll obsessives’ – something I concede from my sick bed, I have become.  This was following the latest YouGov tracker poll for The Sun, continuing to show only a 6% Tory lead.

The tracker poll is an interesting beast.  My understanding is there is a set sample and each day, the oldest data drops off and a similar new sample is added.  In theory, any switches in support over events, should be immediately apparent, rather than having to wait for the next monthly poll to be produced.  Of course, the usual points about margins of error, etc., still apply.

The most interesting thing about the YouGov tracker (as at 24th February in any case) is that there has been very little movement, despite all the media hype over ‘Bully-gate’.  Whether this factors into subsequent polls still remains to be seen, but the YouGov tracker is also in line with all the other current published polls (except the Angus Reid polls which are wildly out on anything else published!)

YouGov Tracker Poll:


 CON LAB LD Lead
24 Feb 38% 32% 17% Con +6%
23 Feb 39% 33% 17% Con +6%
19 Feb 39% 33% 17% Con +6%
18 Feb 39% 32% 18% Con +7%
17 Feb 39% 30% 18% Con +9%

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VULTURE FUNDS:

My Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill has its second reading on Friday. As I mentioned in my earlier blog piece, Sally Keeble MP (pictured) has very kindly agreed to take the Bill forward for me on Friday – and until I can properly return to work following my recent health problems.  The text of the Bill and Explanatory Notes can be found here.

And here’s a piece from today’s Guardian too.

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130,000 reasons to say sorry!

February 24th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

I really enjoyed Dan Snow’s recent series on BBC2, Empire of the Seas.

It was a thoroughly enthralling story of England’s and then Britain’s rise as a global imperial power. For me, it was one of the best current explanations of who we are, where we came from, and how at its height, a third of the world was painted pink on maps; an empire over which the sun would never set!

As a child, myself, I loved this period of history – and Snow’s series, for me, was a great nostalgic look back at the fantastic heroics of Nelson and the great explorations of Captain Cook.  But it was precisely that, a nostalgic look back.

Today, quite rightly, the British Government is apologising for a terrible chapter in Britain’s quite recent imperial past.  We now know that from the 1920s onwards, there was a clear policy – agreed between Britain and her Dominion governments – of child migration to help maintain and grow the ‘white’ population principally in Australia (though others were sent to South Africa, Rhodesia, Canada and New Zealand too). This policy affected no fewer than 130,000 British children over several decades.

In 2010 we are understandably appalled that any British government – of the left or right – could allow this practice to happen, particularly as archive reports show that concerns were raised at the time about the poor living conditions and the physical and sexual abuse faced by those children.

And what shocked me the most was that this wasn’t just from the pages of the inter-war history books; BBC News yesterday interviewed a man who had been sent to Australia as a five-year-old in 1970. That was only four years before I was born!

I hope, as with Kevin Rudd’s apology in Australia a few months back, the British Government’s apology today can help the process of healing for those now adult ‘child’ victims and their families.

It won’t undo those terrible experiences, but it is a chapter in Commonwealth history we should be very keen to to acknowledge and close – though for the sake of those children, never, ever forget.

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How hung? (The next parliament!)

February 21st, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

A few weeks back, I did warn you that politicians were obsessed by the polls, and particularly as an election approaches. I suppose after this post, I now have to include myself in that category!

Since that earlier post, there have been a number of public opinion polls published and most (to a greater or lesser extent) showing the gaps between the main parties narrowing – so exciting times for political junkies like me!

The media narrative now is that we are in hung parliament territory, and indeed on the face of it, that is precisely where we are.  Most commentators will tell you that, because of the electoral system, the Conservatives will need an 11% or 12% lead over Labour on polling day to be certain of a small overall majority. Today’s poll for the Sunday Times shows the Tory lead at just 6%, the lowest level with YouGov since 2008.

On a uniform swing, that poll would leave the Conservatives over 30 seats short of an overall majority, and only around 10 seats ahead of Labour.  Of course, there are a few caveats here, not least that there isn’t going to be a uniform swing. Results will differ from region to region, seat by seat, and largely down to local factors.

Indeed this is starting to show through in more detailed polling.  The assumption has to date been that the Tories are doing much better in the marginal seats they have to win than in constituencies like mine, which are completely off their political radar.  Having said that, there was an interesting set of polls published by ICM/Kindle Research yesterday for the three Brighton and Hove constituencies showing that Labour has pulled ahead of the Conservatives in all three seats.  These are precisely the kind of constituencies David Cameron must win.

So on that basis how hung will our next parliament be?  On paper, it currently looks a likely outcome that no party will have a majority after the election.  But so too, if we throw our minds back, did the 1992 election and yet the Tory government held on with a 21 seat majority in the end.

Our first past the post electoral system actually makes hung parliaments very difficult to achieve – though not impossible.  Will 2010 be another 1992 or will it be another February 1974, the only post-war election with an inconclusive result?

Time will tell when Britain votes on March 25th, April 8th, April 15th, May 6th, June 3rd. *Delete as appropriate depending on this week’s rumours (the date of the election itself is a whole separate post!!!).  In the meantime, we’ll just have to be patient and obsess over a few more polls!

Since I posted this earlier today, He’s Spartacus has added his views on the subject here

Brighton and Hove Kindle Research Polls – Feb 2010:

LAB CON GREEN LD
Pavilion 41% (+5) 25% (+2) 19% (-3) 8% (-8)
Kemptown 38% (-1) 36% (+2) 13% (+7) 11% (-6)
Hove 38% (+1) 34% (-2) 10% (+2) 10% (-8)

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Latest National Polls:

CON LAB LD Con Lead
YouGov 21st Feb 39% 33% 17% +6%
ComRes 21st Feb 38% 30% 20% +8%
YouGov 18th Feb 39% 32% 18% +7%
YouGov 17th Feb 39% 30% 18% +9%
ComRes 11th Feb 40% 29% 21% +11%
ICM 4th Feb 39% 30% 20% +9%

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Time to end the Vulture Culture

February 20th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

Every year I have put my name down on the Private Member’s Bill ballot – just in case I am lucky enough to be drawn – and for the past four years, I have failed miserably to get any slot for my own piece of legislation.

Then, one morning in November 2009, I got up and switched on my BlackBerry (which had been charging overnight) and received instantly about 500 emails begging and pleading with me to take up a variety of good causes in my Bill.  By the time I had reached my Commons office, it was over 1,000 emails. And a few days later, the snail mail had started to drop on my desk too!

Actually I think the ballot was a Mancunian “fix” this year – all top three slots went to Greater Manchester Labour MPs (Dr Brian Iddon, David Chaytor and myself).

I have spent a great deal of time considering which issue I should take forward and that’s no easy task… everyone wants to be your friend!  But when I was elected to Parliament one of my personal pledges was to help those who are less fortunate than ourselves in this world.

One of the things I have personally been concerned about has been the operation of so called “vulture funds” whereby a small number of investment companies buy up the defaulted debts of the world’s poorest countries at very low prices and then take them to court to aggressively recoup the debts at full value. So after long consideration this is the issue I have decided to deal with through my Private Member’s Bill.

Very recently in the UK High Court two investment funds won the right to recover over £20m from Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world. This was for an initial loan in the 1970s of only £6m. Surely this is money that could be better spent on things such as health and education by the Liberian Government?

For too long, some companies have been allowed to get away with exploiting the debt relief received by developing countries for their own profit; taking vital resources away from those that need it most.

The second reading debate is next Friday, 26th February. For health reasons, I am unable to personally present the bill, but kindly the whips’ and the Speaker have allowed me to be able to have it presented by another member (Sally Keeble has agreed to do this) although the Bill remains in my name.

In all seriousness, I’m not entirely sure how likely my Bill is to make it onto the statute book. The timing of the General Election and the dissolution of Parliament will to some extent determine that.  But we’ll give it a go and hopefully help to change the world in a small way!

For more information, see the Jubilee Debt Campaign.

The text of the Bill and explanatory notes can now be found here.



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The timing is everything in politics.

February 18th, 2010 by Andrew Gwynne

For those who have been following me on Twitter, you’ll know I’ve been very unwell for a while now. If I’m honest, I haven’t actually been 100 per cent since before I had swine flu in July, but since the end of November I have had a very bad chest infection that just wouldn’t shift at all. Four sets of antibiotics, a course of steroids, two chest x-rays and several blood tests later (and most of December and January spent in bed), I was still worse than ever!

To cut a long story short, I was hospitalised last Thursday when I was in for a bronchoscopy. It appeared I had had a pulmonary embolism the previous Tuesday when I’d been sent down to London to vote in the AV referendum debate. Note: I collapsed at Euston station, but still made it into the voting lobbies!!

What I must tell you is I ended up in my local hospital, Tameside Hospital in Ashton-under-Lyne. It is a troubled place – scoring very badly in the recent Dr Foster report and in an unannounced investigation by the Care Quality Commission. The management of the hospital has been slammed as incompetent, and there’s even a petition for an independent investigation into the hospital. Added to that, I (along with the other local MPs, James Purnell and David Heyes) just the week before, called publicly for the Chief Executive of the Foundation Trust to resign!

Given that, what great timing to be admitted into there!

Anyway, a week in Tameside Hospital has done me the world of good. They’ve treated me brilliantly and it serves as a reminder of the professionalism and dedication of the staff there (it doesn’t change my opinion of the chronic top management there), and it makes me proud of our National Health Service.

After several painful injections in my stomach to thin the blood, an Eco-scan and a CT scan, the clot has gone and now I am on more antibiotics and steroids and – hopefully – on the mend.

The final irony is I have been ‘signed off’ work in order to fully recover. Yes, I have been given a sick note! But just who do I give it to? The whips’ will surely laugh at me. Maybe I need to post 68,000 photocopies to my constituents instead?

Ps, thanks to all for their good wishes! Very much appreciated.

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Get Well Soon

February 12th, 2010 by David

Some of you may be aware that Andrew has been under the weather recently with a fairly serious suspected chest infection — He went in to hospital yesterday for a follow-up and they have decided to admit him for a few days to get him put right and back to full health.  He asked us to let you know that he will resume his blog next week as soon as he gets back to work.

Get well soon Andrew.

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