by Paul Scully | Jun 11, 2009 | News |
A group of MPs has criticised councils for ignoring the warning signs about the Icelandic banking system. The BBC reports that the all-party Communities and Local Government Select Committee said that complacency, lack of expertise and inaction all helped put taxpayers’ money at risk. The Local Government Association defended councils saying that they had received poor advice.
Sutton lost £5.5m after investing in Heritable Bank, a UK subsidiary of Landsbanki. Lead Councillor for Resources John Drage has dismissed each of the accusations over the last year despite admitting that he himself, had taken his eye off the ball. Cllr Drage is a retired Bank of England economist, working through the collapse in Japan in the nineties. When Cllr Drage fell asleep on the job, this smacked of complacency and robbed the authority of some expertise, leading to inaction, thus fulfilling all three of the accusations included in the report. End result? Sutton taxpayers are £5.5million worse off for the time being, with the latest prediction that we will lose £1.1million and get the rest back in a few years.
by Paul Scully | Jun 9, 2009 | News |
Following the death of my colleague and friend, Chris Dunlop, the by-election to elect his replacement in Nonsuch will be held on July 2nd.
We are really lucky to have an excellent candidate, Georg Braun, who lives in the heart of the ward. He has four children who go to local school, runs his own business and lives in Hampton Road which is used as a rat-run to avoid Central Road. This all means that he has a good grasp of the issues for people in North Cheam and Worcester Park. He shares the same issues on a day to day basis.
Georg has already hit the ground running in Nonsuch. Literally in his first five minutes of campaigning for the by-election he found three severely blocked drains due to longstanding neglect by the Council and called them in. He’s also signed up to our Freeze The Tax campaign at http://www.freezethetax.org.uk/. He’s a local guy with local priorities. He’ll make a fantastic addition to the team and a strong voice for Nonsuch. I know he’ll work hard to carry on Chris Dunlop’s positive approach to local politics.
Georg told the local newspapers “I’m not your typical politician but Chris showed me how important our local representatives can be. His positive approach to our area has inspired me to stand for election. I hope I can count on residents’ support in continuing his legacy of making a difference.
“Nonsuch Ward – covering North Cheam and Worcester Park – is forgotten by this Council. We’re almost always at the back of the queue for help from Sutton Council. Our area needs a positive new vision. A Conservative-run Council can provide it and I will be campaigning for it.”
You can catch up with news from the area and his jottings from the stump throughout the campaign via his blog, changeNonsuch
by Paul Scully | Jun 5, 2009 | News |
My fingers are slightly numb after 12 hours of ringing on doorbells. Nonetheless, Iain Dale
I’m bound to pontificate on my blog about the result sooner or later, but you should listen to those in the know first by clicking on the link and listening to Iain and commentators across the country.
![Police Called In Over LibDem Leaflet]()
by Paul Scully | Jun 4, 2009 | News |
According to the Sutton Guardian, police have been called in by a Sutton resident on a contravention of electoral law by the LibDems. Regular commenter on this blog, Adrian Short has asked the Special Crimes Unit to investigate Paul Burstow and Tom Brake over claims made in their European election literature which I commented on this morning.
You can see the whole article via the link above but I have reproduced a snippet below:-
Mr Short said: “Let me be very clear that I am not a lawyer and I am not saying that anyone has broken the law.
“However, in my reading of the law, I have formed a suspicion that the law has been broken and, as with all suspected crimes, I have reported it to the police.
“Regardless of the outcome of the legal process, I think it’s very important that people understand that, whichever party they vote for on June 4, their vote will be equally valuable and will help their preferred party to gain MEPs, entirely contrary to what the Lib Dems’ leaflets are saying.”
Bob Steel, the Sutton Green Party chairman, added: “The leaflets are deceitful and patronising.
“They will only further corrode trust in politicians, already at an all-time low.
“Lib Dems apparently have such a low view of their European performance that they devote 90 per cent of their leaflet to trying to dupe voters they are electing Tom Brake to deal with local issues like recycling.”
I agree with Bob Steel. It is disappointing that after nearly quarter of a century running the Borough, the LibDems have run out of steam to such an extent that they feel the need to prop up their remaining hopes through such means. They have asked for proportional representation for years. Now they have it, they seem to have decided that they don’t want to use it after all. If politicians can’t be straight with the public about something so basic, what trust can we have left in them.
by Paul Scully | Jun 4, 2009 | News |
Today the polls are open to vote for your Members of the European Parliament. You might not think that this is important but there are a few good reasons why it is worth turning up to your polling station and voting Conservative.
Tim Montgomerie on Conservative Home covers it well:-
- Vote Conservative because it’s the vote that Labour fears most.
- Vote Conservative because of David Cameron’s tough response to expenses-gate.
- Vote Conservative because the Tory MEPs are set to leave the EPP and form the largest centre right grouping in the European Parliament opposed to ever closer union.
- Vote Conservative because Tory MEPs will vote against the EU’s
ambitions to spend our way out of recession.
- Vote Conservative because it’s the surest way of getting a referendum on Lisbon.
- Vote Conservative because David Cameron is the only UK party leader fit to be Prime Minister.
Voting for minor parties may well salve your conscience about the shenanigans in Westminster but Gordon Brown will shrug this off as only he can, as a blip. Whilst from a party point of view, I believe that Gordon Brown is the Conservative’s greatest asset, as a British taxpayer, it is time that the message gets through to his Cabinet colleagues that it is time for him to go. This country cannot afford another year of hiatus with the global economic climate as it is.
Meanwhile, the LibDems have been pushing out leaflets with their usual barcharts. They are the foremost proponents of proportional representation, yet when they campaign in an election with exactly the kind of electoral system that they want, they campaign as if it was First Past the Post. They explain that only the LibDems and Conservatives can win in Sutton, Carshalton & Wallington. The only problem with this is that this is a London-wide election. You vote for a party’s slate of candidates rather than individual names (unless they are independents). The ballot paper is two foot long. Messages like this only go to confuse people further.
POLLS CLOSE AT 10pm
A group of MPs has criticised councils for ignoring the warning signs about the Icelandic banking system. The BBC reports that the all-party Communities and Local Government Select Committee said that complacency, lack of expertise and inaction all helped put taxpayers’ money at risk. The Local Government Association defended councils saying that they had received poor advice.
