more … ]]> Here’s the speech I made proposing the motion ‘Fairness in a time of austerity‘ at the recent Liverpoool Conference:

[See post to watch Flash video]
There wasn’t too much disagreement (or indeed any disagreement) that I recall, and the motion was carried overwhelmingly.

Fellow Liberal Democrats,

We have been, to put it mildly, living in interesting political times.

And one of the things that is most interesting about those times, is the size of the opportunity that we have – as members of a democratic party of government – to influence those times.

It’s exciting. It’s challenging. It’s occasionally a bit disconcerting.. •But the next five years are, by far, the biggest opportunity of our political lives to date to see Liberal Democrat ideas implemented.

To see our commitment to freedom. To fairness. To the environment.  Implemented. Making a difference to the lives of people in this country.

But it’s been an up and down journey.

Mid-May wasn’t the best time of my  life, but I can still remember the sense of delight when I read the coalition agreement for the first time. When I saw how many of the things I’d fought the General Election on were now in the programme for Government.

But one of the more difficult lesson we’ve had since then is that not everything is covered in the coalition agreement

Some of the decisions outside the agreement have felt decidedly uncomfortable.

And they won’t necessarily be the last ones.  Decisions will have to be taken, budgets written, cuts made, that unavoidably lie outside what was agreed in early May.

And this motion is a response to that.

At the heart of it lies the idea that the deficit is not the only challenge that the country faces.

We fought the election on the basis that we were facing not just a financial crisis, but an environmental crisis, a political crisis and a crisis of social justice and inequality.

Our ministerial team is doing great work across all these areas, but this motion unambiguously seeks to strengthen our commitment to tackling the evils of poverty, social injustice and inequality.

Hard to do at the best of times. But even harder in a time of austerity.

Because we’ve seen huge increases in youth unemployment and the risk of a ‘lost generation’, it puts forward a commitment for investment in training and education – and reforming higher education funding.

Because we have a housing, environmental and employment crisis, it reinforces our commitment to green affordable housing.

Because our financial system has proved itself not fit for purpose, it encourages the establishment of credit unions, mutuals and regional stock exchanges to support small business – and reinforces Vince’s plans to reform the banks.

And because of the continuing evil of child poverty, it deliberately puts it front and centre of our policy priorities for this Government.

But it also seeks to build on the experience of the first few months, on the way we’ve sometimes seen the Government’s claims to fairness and social justice challenged – and to the shared Conservative and Liberal Democrat commitment to openness and transparency.

The Conservatives deserve credit for the idea of the Office of Budget Responsibility. Particularly after years of claims from Labour and Gordon Brown that just didn’t stack up.

But  not everything about the idea has been perfect and we seek to build on that idea. Give it, if you will, a Liberal Democrat twist, and to extend its remit to look at the socio-economic impact of Treasury policy – not just the effect on the deficit.

Not just statistics. But people. The effect on women and on men. On old and on young. On able-bodied people and disabled people.

This is a critical commitment. We face hugely difficult times. It’s vital that the people with the broadest shoulders take the heaviest load.  This proposed change puts that commitment under the greatest scrutiny and at the heart of Government policy.

But no policy programme that is serious about social justice can fail to look at inequalities and taxation of wealth.

We still live in a country where the richest 20% own nearly 2/3rds of the country’s wealth. And the poorest half have only 9%.

Wealth taxation isn’t just right. It’s responsible. A recent OECD report made clear that wealth taxes are the least harmful to growth compared to all other ways of raising money.

But introducing them is now always straightforward. The transitions can be difficult – particularly on property and land taxation.

But if we’re thinking differently. Thinking for the next election. Thinking what we can achieve before the next election. We need to start now – and this motion calls upon our ministers to get the work done to get the cool, dispassionate look at taxation on wealth – instead of other taxes – as a way of closing the deficit and paying for our public services.

Not all of this motion will be loved by our coalition partners. Although they have shown quite a capability an ability to surprise us.

But we’re deliberately putting forward measures that put our commitment to social justice firmly on  the table in our discussions with our coalition partners.

We want to add a new frisson to the relationship. To strengthen our ministers hands. Ensure that there is creative tension, not just consensus and compromise.

But most of all, we want it to be that when people look back on the 2010 coalition Government, they don’t just say that it fixed the deficit, fixed the political system and made huge progress in greening our economy and our society, but that the 2010 coalition Government became a Government that made a real difference. A big difference.  In tackling the evils of poverty and social injustice. And becomes a Government that we can all say we were proud to support and be part of.

more … ]]> In 2009/10, we were lucky that, here in Winchester, we had a Mayor who cared passionately about homelessness and raised a large amount to support local homelessness charities.

This is the film that was made to support Dominic’s campaign.


[See post to watch Flash video]
To support homeless people in Winchester, you can donate online to Trinity or to the Nightshelter – and both organisations are also always looking for volunteers. Two other organisations are also actively helping homeless people locally: Emmaus and the Winchester branch of the Salvation Army.

more … ]]> It seems a long time ago now, but on the day that the coalition was announced, Mark Easton reported on the views of activists from Winchester on News at Ten.

Here’s the report:

more … ]]> It seems a while since Winchester City Council had its troubles with Icelandic banks.

I realised to my surprise that I never uploaded the video of the original BBC News report on it, so here it is:

I particularly like Steve Humphrey’s line about the Conservatives in Winchester feeling the blues and the Lib Dems in Eastleigh basking in a golden glow!

more … ]]> More catching up. Here’s a BBC South Today report on ambulance response times from April 16, 2009 using the results of an FOI request I did on ambulance response times.

The response to this FOI request and subsequent meetings with the trust, led to the discovery that Hampshire had too few ambulances per capita, persuading the trust to admit this at their AGM, and an increase in ambulance numbers towards the end of last financial year.

more … ]]> Having a brand new blisteringly fast computer for my birthday means I can start processing and uploading video again.

Here as a starter for 10, is a BBC South Today report from April 17, 2009 by Peter Henley on the use of the web, video and Twitter for campaigning, featuring the successful Save Our Loos campaign we ran in Alresford in the first half of 2009.

You can see all my latest uploaded video on this page.

more … ]]> Last Sunday, I went up to Milestones in Basingstoke to take part in the BBC South edition of the Politics Show.

If you missed it, it’s still available on the iPlayer.

The relevant section starts here.

Post-note:

It’s not available on the iPlayer anymore, but I have finally managed to upload it here.

[See post to watch Flash video]

more … ]]> Just over a week ago, I took a break from our one week holiday and went to the ITV Millbank studios to record an episode of ‘The Last Word’ for ITV Meridian.  The whole thing was shot in half an hour – we discussed Damian Green, the economy and the Queen’s Speech – and the attached is the result!

more … ]]>

Winchester had a wonderfully gentle atmosphere on Friday evening.

Around 10,000 people (according to the Echo) were in the centre for the Winchester Passion.

The evening started at Oram’s Arbour and then moved to the Great Hall, followed by the Law Courts, then the High Street and Butter Cross, and finally the west end of the Cathedral.

David Spender has some great photographs of the event – and has set up a Flickr group for the Passion to pull together everyone else’s as well.

The following video (shot on a digital camera at quite some distance) is not great quality, but it does give a sense of the atmosphere outside the cathedral during the crucifixion scene.

Winchester Passion 2008

more … ]]> A very good report from Briony Leyland on the threat to Winchester’s Textile Conservation Centre.

What’s becoming increasingly clear is that the Government are flunking their responsibilities here. Ian Pearson’s answer to a question that Mark asked in Parliament makes this particularly clear.

But it’s probably best to let the report speak for itself!

more … ]]> Bad news on the Tower last Friday as you can see from the following news report:

Despite Ken Thornber being forced to wriggle on the issue of rapidly increasing head office costs in Recreation and Heritage (because the Tower is being cut to fund head office costs – not adult social care); despite his officers being forced to admit that the ‘evening programme fund’ proposal is completely half-baked; despite his refusal to even address Alex Hoare’s outstanding speech on how John Tellett and the Tower Arts Centre have nurtured arts in Winchester – and the critical role of artistic direction in a successful arts centre; and despite his failure to address almost any of the points raised by Jan Moring, Ken Thornber decided to go ahead with the paper proposed to him and transfer the Tower to Kings’ School, slash local arts funding, and set up a tiny ‘figleaf fund’ – supposedly to support the evening arts programme in Winchester.

It’s frustrating. It’s infuriating. And it’s tragic to know that so much of the work of John Tellett and his team will come to an end this April.

The ‘Save Tower Arts’ campaign tried everything. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues tried everything. The Lib Dem controlled Town Forum signed up to put money into the project. We were regularly talking to our local Conservative opposite numbers, asking them to do whatever it took to save the Tower. And we were more than happy for them to take the credit for it, just as long as the Tower was saved as an arts centre.

But it was not to be.

The infuriating thing is that the failure to save the Tower is not due to financial crisis. It’s due to lack of political will and lack of political vision.

The last few months have been a farce. The Conservatives have organised a consultation – and then refused to listen to it. They’ve asked for a report into different options – and then ignored it. They’ve said that they need more details of their preferred option – and then decided to proceed anyway when they don’t got them.

This goes beyond party politics. Ultimately it’s a question of competence and commitment to the arts.

We’re not giving up just yet. There’s a very small chance that we can stop the current proposal. We certainly need to try and improve it. However we can’t deny that last Friday’s decision is a very heavy blow.

Here’s the speech I made at Ken Thornber’s decision day:

Thank you for giving us extra time to speak today

There are only a few minutes left, so I will if I may focus on one issue

The proposed plan for an evening programme

The issue is this: it doesn’t add up – financially or organisationally

The proposal is to take the dramatically reduced funds allocated to the Tower – and spread them across the whole of Winchester

It sets no meaningful objectives

No clarity of accountability, management and leadership
No plan for staffing

It doesn’t answer basic questions as to how an evening programme at the Tower – or anywhere else will function:

• Who will promote the events?
• Who will sell tickets?
• Who will booking artists?
• Who, in each venue, and especially the Tower, will be responsible for the audience and ensuring that everything runs smoothly on the night?

It’s based on a myth

Most of the programming at The Tower cannot simply be moved to the Theatre Royal, Discovery Centre, Railway Inn or any other venue in Winchester.

Taking the Discovery Centre, let’s remember the following statement from the consultant’s report:

it cannot be a replacement for the Tower performance space

There’s another statement I’d like to recall from the original consultants report:

The Tower is run efficiently and there are no significant opportunities to reduce costs whilst continuing to offer the current mix of participation and performance programming

This proposal is based on the unsubstantiated assumption that a meaningful evening programme for Winchester can delivered:

• With less money
• With dramatically reduced staffing
• Spread across more venues

This plan cuts the funding for the arts in Winchester by up to £70k

It cuts the staffing below the levels needed to run the programme

In its current form, this isn’t an alternative programme – it’s a political figleaf.

Now I understand the financial pressures.

But I’d like to make one thing very clear.

You are not being asked to cut the Tower to find adult social care.

You are being asked to cut frontline spending on the arts, to fund a dramatic increase in spending on head office staff.

It is a classic warning sign when central budgets are expanding at the expense of front line activity.

Sadly this is the case in recreation and heritage.

We hear a lot about the need to find savings to pay for adult social care.

So it’s disappointing to see the budget for Recreation & Heritage’s policy development initiatives increase by £115k over the last two years and the budget for the Recreation & Heritage’s Director & Business Development by £133k at the same time as we are discussing cutting the Tower by £70k.

Given a choice, I would like to see us cutting the amount we pay people to sit in the Castle and write arts policy, rather than slashing the Tower Arts budget and get rid of people who are actually on the front line delivering the arts to local people.

Ultimately this is a request for vision and ambition for the arts in Winchester and Hampshire

Winchester is set to grow faster than the rest of Hampshire

The arts accounts for 15% of the South East’s economy – and are the fastest growing sector of the economy

Winchester has a university specialising in dance and drama – and one of the best art schools in the UK

We do not yet have – and we need – an artistic infrastructure to match

We may be the 2nd best place to live in the UK, but we came 95th for lifestyle, arts and culture.

This gap. This failure was backed up your own survey.

The best way to improve this proposal would be to recognise the vital creative role that the Tower plays and continue funding at current levels for three years – and giving enough time to find the alternative sources of funding that enable the Tower to continue to thrive as an arts centre – as you have with other arts centres including the one in your own division. [Ken Thornber shook his head]. Sorry. In the division next to yours.

The second best option would be to continue funding for one year.

If, regrettably, you are not to be persuaded about the merits of delaying transfer to the school, I think you deserve, the Tower deserves and the people of Hampshire deserve a more robust recommendation for the evening programme – specifically including:

First: a higher financial contribution to the Tower to get the overall spending and staffing to current levels – at least for a year – the schools funding may allow for less than £70k spending – but the goal should be to reach this year’s levels

Secondly: Focus of the funds available on the Tower exclusively – not least because this is what has been agreed with at least one of your funding partners.

Finally: A clear staffing, organisation and governance plan that brings together the Tower’s activities – both evening and daytime – which includes community involvement and clear identification of a role with responsibility for artistic direction of the Tower’s programme

In the last few months

Thousands of people have signed petitions

Hundreds of people packed the Winchester Guildhall, answered surveys and written to you and your colleagues in person

You’ve heard from artists. And you’ve heard from members of the public.

Almost all of them want you to save the Tower as an Arts Centre – as a centre where art education, art creation and art performance come together in a coordinated artistic programme.

The Tower is a unique artistic and creative institution within a city and a county – for whom the arts are growing ever more important.

And in the next few minutes, we could be about to lose it.

We need to be clear. The proposal on the table marks the end of the Tower as an arts centre

You showed yourself willing to listen to reasoned argument back in July – that’s why we are sitting here today – and that is to your credit.

Please do so again.

And please… save the Tower.

more … ]]> It’s been a bit of a hectic week for media with interviews on Sky, ITV and the BBC.

The BBC and Sky wanted to talk about the WWF report on Winchester’s Environmental Footprint.

The Sky interview (below) was live and straight into a camera with a small earpiece in my ear where I could listen to Eamonn Holmes.

The BBC interview was prerecorded at home. The final shot with Tom Hepworth is shot in our living room. That’s my TV that gets switched off at the end (and, yes, it does get switched off at the wall when not in use).

WWF’s analysis showed that Winchester uses the equivalent of 3.6 planets worth of resources – above the UK average of 3 planets – and way over the level we would need to be at to be sustainable.

It’s partly a question of geography – the analysis related to all 250 square miles of the City Council area – which makes Winchester one of the largest and most rural city councils in the UK. We also have a lot of commuting and major motorways running through the city council area. But the main reason is that we’re relatively well off. It’s a great place to live – the best in England according to Location, Location, Location – but this all comes at a price.

I’m pretty certain most people locally are going to take this as a challenge. We already know we’re a great place to live. We now need to become a great and a green place to live. We need to show how it’s possible to move towards high quality, low carbon living. As a well-off city in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we need to take a lead. If we can’t change, why should anyone else? There’s a new group been set up called ‘Winchester Action on Climate Change’ which brings together government, business and individuals which is an ideal forum to make this happen.

Personally, I’d like to see action on every level. The Government needs a bigger shift from income tax towards green taxes, more support for renewable energy and to make it easier and more affordable for people to have greener homes. Research into renewable energy sources needs the same kind of priority as the Manhattan Project or the Apollo Mission. The County Council needs to get serious about public transport and stop cutting it. The City Council needs to do more: for example, start food waste recycling and set higher green standards for new commercial buildings – and we need to do more to plan Winchester so that it’s easier for people to live a low energy lifestyle. And, obviously, there’s a lot we can do as individuals – change our lightbulbs – move to lower emission cars – switch off electrical devices when we’re not using them – and travel more efficiently.

I also used the WWF website to work out my own footprint – which turned out to be 2.4 planets. Below average – but still 1.4 planets too many. Since doing the survey, I’ve got much better at switching stuff off at the wall when I’m not using it. I’m buying more at the Farmers’ Market. My next priority is to reduce my travel footprint by using public transport and my bike more – and getting a really low emissions car. My current car is pretty good for emissions – but some of the newer ones are even better.

more … ]]> We’ve finally had confirmation that we’ve stopped the County Council completely cutting the 6A. After a huge amount of pressure, the 10.10 and 12.10 services have been saved. It’s taken a lot of hard work to get the County Council to see some sense on this. The 6A is a service that was designed to support elderly and vulnerable people living in sheltered accomodation and it was a disgrace that the Conservatives on the County Council ever considered cutting it.

We will still be campaigning for more than two services a day, but this is already huge progress. You can get a sense of the indomitable spirit of the ‘veterans against the bus cuts group’, especially Ron Petty, who did the most to save the service, from the following Thames Valley TV report.

more … ]]> As mentioned on Facebook, I spent much of last week wandering around Lib Dem conference with a small Sony video camera – filming a range of things from fun through to serious on behalf of ITV Meridian’s “Last Word”.

They weren’t looking for my day-to-day political views, but rather a sense of what it’s like behind the scenes at a party conference.

Only a small selection of what I’d filmed made it through to their final edit – here is the result!

more … ]]> Thank you to everyone who turned up today to the Save Tower Arts demonstration. Local pressure has meant that the decision has been deferred until September 13th to address some of the issues raised.

Not yet a victory – but a step in the right direction.

You can see some photos from today’s demonstration at http://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_tod/sets/72157600880068038/