“News” from the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth. In a fringe event, the Treasury Minister Angela Eagle praised the recent LibDem tax policies anouncements and suggested that her government should do more to tax Britain’s top earners.
Nothing new in what continues to be a “Vote Liberal get Labour” political system, except that who joined her in this meeting? None other than Vince Cable our local Liberal Democrat MP (as well as LibDem David Laws MP).
On the last day of the Liberal Party conference, Vince Cable set out what he called the “controversial” policy of having a “Pupil Premium” that would allow the poorest children to go to the top public schools such as Eton.
In a conference where just about every policy being debated was described as “radical” Vince said that it was only right that poorer children had a chance to get a world class education.
Yes Vince. I wholly, completely and utterly agree with you 100%.
Award for the most bizarre question of the week goes to a constituent who asked whether I “approved” of Lembit Opik today. Initially I thought she had mistaken him for a Tory, or heaven forbid, me for a Liberal.
Having explained our respective party badges to her, she pressed me again with the question, making it clear she knew who we both were.
The honest answer? Er, well, quite frankly yes. Not only do I approve of him, I positively salute him, as I am sure any poor delegate of this week’s disastrous LibDem conference should.
As the Liberal Democrat Conference kicks off in Bournemouth, LibDem leader Menzies Campbell has a couple of hard tasks to grapple with: first, trying to come up with policy in advance of any election announcement from Gordon Brown; second, he needs to appease those voices both within and without the party that believe his tenure as leader of the third party has been an unmitigated disaster. So what’s the game plan? The LibDems tend to do best when they stick to a couple of tight issues and campaign on those, rather than a full manifesto for government. In the 2005 General Election, Iraq was a big theme and picked up a number of votes (and seats) for them.
That issue is less potent now, so the Ming is being moved from his area of strength (Foreign Policy) to his areas of weakness (everything else).
I had a brilliant time on the River on Saturday and would like to congratulate all participants for making it such a fun (and colourful) event! I would also like to thank Mike Turk, the Chairman of The Great River Race, for taking the time out to talk about the history and logistics of the race, which went seamlessly, after a noisy firing gun start by Sting.
It is amazing that so many people from around the world come to the Thames to raise money for charity - over £100,000 has been raised from this event. I hope the photos below will give just a taste of what a great day it was and I hope to see many of you again next year!
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