September 2012

Labour confirms backing for High Speed Rail, challenges Government to speed up project

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Published September 30, 2012, in Politics



Curated from , written by Jonathan Walker

Labour will on Monday urge new Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to speed up plans for a new high speed rail line running from London to Birmingham, Leeds and Newcastle.

Ministers plan to introduce legislation enabling the first phase, from the south to the West Midlands, before the next election.

But Shadow Transport Secretary Maria Eagle will call on the Government to legislate for the second phase too, saying: “I say to the new Transport Secretary, it’s time to get behind this project in the way your predecessors failed to do.

“Let’s work together on a cross-party basis to legislate for the whole route in this Parliament.”

Police and the poverty of ambition

Dire crime detection rates must be priority for new commissioner

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Published September 28, 2012, in Police Commissioners


I have hesitated to write this for fear of being accused of cynicism, or even worse of letting down ‘Team Birmingham’, but it must be said: the first public meeting featuring candidates for West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner was a quite dreadful affair.

All credit to Birmingham Chamber of Commerce for organising the event, which understandably focused on business crime, but the would-be commissioners hardly set the room alight with passion and conviction. Even insomniacs would have been hard pressed to stay awake.

Indeed, those in the audience undecided about who they will vote for on November 15 may have gone away wondering whether it is worth voting at all.

What we heard were plenty of platitudes about ‘zero tolerance’ of anti-social behaviour and not putting up with vandals who spray graffiti about the streets, while unsurprisingly given the location of the meeting each candidate solemnly promised to put fighting business crime at the top of their agenda.

How this will be achieved against a backdrop of savage cuts in police spending

Continues…

Lack of leadership underpins this week’s Clegg, Mitchell and PCC fiascos

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Published September 27, 2012, in Opinion


(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

If I had a pound for every time I’ve heard (and to be honest used) the L word this week, I’d…well, be able to afford my overpriced frothy coffee habit for a week.

There is plenty of professional advice and academic studies on what makes good leaders. Much of it is well considered, useful and apposite. But as Simon Cowell might suggest, in the end more than any template you simply know it when you see it.

In three political environments this week, leadership has been sadly lacking.

First, GateGate. Here, I take a different view to Steve Dyson. Not because the deed is worthy of the boot, but as always in a crisis it’s the cover up rather than the original crime that should make the culprit pay. Mitchell was clearly wrong to begin with – but right to apologise. The lack of Leadership comes from the PM. I admire Mr Cameron for not knee-jerk reacting in a crisis by sacking every minister, spin doctor and SpAd on the spot.  He should await evidence and proper explanation before deciding. The fact that Mitchell effectively denied using the term ‘pleb’ (even in his hamfisted second apology on camera near the said gates) which was then contradicted by the police log is the reason Cameron should have marched him out of the gate. Unless Mitchell can prove the log to be inaccurate, surely his earlier denial in the eyes of the Tory leader is left open to question. The PM is left looking weak, keeping a man in office who has effectively been economical with the truth but remains in charge of party discipline just when the Tory ‘plebs’ are more restless than ever. At the same time, Call me Dave has effectively said he doesn’t trust the word of the police guarding his street. That will come back to haunt him.

Most of the West Midlands PCC candidates took part in Birmingham Chamber’s hustings event this week. This is for a post that will pay around £100k and will set the direction and oversee the work of the region’s police force. For such a job, you would want to see candidates who demonstrate a sense of authority, gravitas and grip.  Surely, we expect our Commissioner to exude a sense of power as well as respect. Based on brief pitches and some Q&As (and so this may be unfair) none seemed to demonstrate the depth of leadership qualities you might reasonably expect.

Yesterday, we saw the first of the leaders’ annual conference speeches from the three main parties. Now, here’s an admission. I like Nick Clegg. I respect the decision he took to go into the Coalition. I don’t like everything he says or does, but I think history may be kinder to him than contemporary commentary. But his speech was hardly a barnstormer. I don’t think anyone will be setting it to music. I recognise it was more of a pep talk to his members and a steady the ship, we’re serious message to the outside world. But it was an odd speech – oddly constructed, oddly written and, at times, oddly delivered. If this week was about moving beyond the line he drew around a broken pledge, it didn’t go very far to develop a refreshed narrative around his purpose, philosophy or policy agenda.

I draw two conclusions from this week’s examples. First, too many leaders (and would be leaders) are taking either poor or not enough advice. (By the way, a tip for Cath Hannon’s PCC campaign team. I would worry less about posting twitter rebuttals and spend more time with your candidate preparing her for Q&As.) You need to hear from people who are not afraid to challenge you and live (at least part of the time) outside of your bubble.

Second, we are clearly not doing enough to encourage potential leaders to come forward in public life. Even with a £100k salary, the PCC role (and indeed putative elected mayor role) has not been enough to tempt a new generation of fresh and exciting leaders to come forward. There’s a whole different blogpost (and indeed essay) on why that might be, but surely the desire for a healthy democracy (and localism) demand that we rethink our approach to encouraging new leaders for public life.

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Key lessons from the Liberal Democrat conference

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Published September 27, 2012, in Politics



Curated from , written by Isabel Hardman

Now the Lib Dems have finally reached the end of their autumn conference in Brighton, here’s a summary of the most important points from the week:

1. The Lib Dems will struggle to work with Ed Balls in the event of a possible Lib-Lab pact in 2015. Nick Clegg made this clear in his speech this afternoon, by name.

2. Nick Clegg wants to pull his party with him into demonstrating that coalition works. The about catch-up tuition for school children was a demonstration of how two-party government can be very effective, while his tough talking on the party no longer being a comfortable protest vote was designed to scold those on the outside – and any unhappy delegates on the inside – for wailing that the party is in government.

3. The Liberal Democrat party is . Clegg’s team are very keen to remind us all of the vote earlier this week which endorsed that policy, and of the resounding defeat for the amendment which called for a change of course.

4. All the language at this conference has suggested that if the OBR figures suggest that the government will not meet its debt target without stringent cuts, then the Lib Dems will want to drop that target rather than going for more cuts.

5. The leadership has opened up what could become a . MPs and peers have been instructed by members to oppose the legislation in parliament, but the three parliamentarians who spoke in the debate yesterday all suggested that the legislation should pass. It will be interesting to see how the grassroots campaign on the issue of closed courts grows, and whether the leadership has learned any lessons from the row over the Health and Social Care Bill.

6. Clegg and his colleagues are aware of the horror with which the grassroots regard any future welfare cuts, and there is continuing disquiet about reforms to disability benefits, too. The Deputy Prime Minister’s words on the 45p rate of tax being the lowest the government will go in this parliament shows that the party will now push for a mansion tax or a wealth tax in exchange for further welfare cuts, rather than as quid pro quo for tax cuts for high earners.

7. The party’s 2015 manifesto may well include a . Clegg made it clear that it would be difficult to end universal eligibility for these benefits before then, but as we’ve , work is underway on how the winter fuel payment could become more efficient. The party is clearly positioning itself as one that can make public spending productive, and abolishing welfare payments to rich pensioners will be one example of that.

8. The reason that the mood this week has been surprisingly upbeat is that there is still a good chance that the Liberal Democrats could end up back in government again. In many ways, they would be far more frightened if the Tories were 10 points ahead in the polls rather than Labour.

9. The environment is a key area of differentiation between the two coalition parties. That Ed Davey was king of the fringe meetings, popping up everywhere for panel discussions and interviews, was one indication of how important the party feels it is to hold its nerve against the Conservatives on this area. Clegg roused a good cheer and many appreciative laughs in the conference hall when he joked that ‘to make blue go green you have to add yellow, and that’s exactly what we’re doing’. They are also clearly making a pitch to lost Cameroon voters who wonder whether voting blue to go green in 2010 was a waste.

10. The leadership positioning has started in earnest, though none of it was actively disloyal this week. Ed Davey’s omnipresence at the fringe was one example of his attempt to make a name for himself, as was his . Vince Cable was also clearly setting out his stall a little more in his own speech this week.

The post appeared first on .

Mike Rumble: I’ll end cuts and outsourcing if elected PCC

"I will do everything in my power to support the staff of the West Midlands Police"

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Published September 26, 2012, in Police Commissioners


  • Candidate statement of independent candidate Mike Rumble of Stourbridge, a former police officer in the West Midlands.

The Police and Crime Commissioner elections on the 15 November this year is a historic opportunity to empower the electorate of the West Midlands.

It is a genuine chance for the people to voice their concerns and direct exactly what issues, they want their police service to focus their resources upon.

We have some of the finest police officers and civilian staff in the country serving in the West Midlands but due to political medalling, the morale of these officers is at an all time low.

20% budget cuts with more expected in the next few years have brought the service to a near crisis point. The recent report from Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) – Policing in Austerity – one year on, highlights the real  concerns about 6% fewer police officers will be on front line roles and state that “Budget cuts are a threat to the long term sustainability of forces to effectively tackle crime and provide the level of service the public rightly expect and deserve”.

If elected, I will do everything in my power to support the staff of the West Midlands Police and, importantly in doing so, I will be supporting the residents of the West Midlands, making sure your voice is heard and that he officers deliver the service we so rightly deserve.

As the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner I will put in place an immediate halt to the reduction of police and civilian staff.

I will also cancel current proposals to contract out parts of the police service to private security companies.

I will instead work with the Chief Constable; the Police Federation and support staff unions to modernise business and work practices that free officers to patrol our streets, be proactive and innovative wherever possible and reactive when the public need them.

I will also address the public concern about police investigating police complaints. I will negotiate with the Chief  Constable to return the police investigators to front line policing and replace them with independent non-police investigators, so that the public can have confidence that complaints are investigated impartially.

I have also set up an on line petition on my website, to have all registered sex offenders GPS tagged whilst they are out in the community. That way we can track where they are in real time and make sure we are doing everything we can to protect our children. You can sign up to the campaign by logging on to my home page.

Politicians have in the main lost the respect and trust of the public and I believe that it is imperative that we make sure that politicians of whatever party do not take control of our police service.

I firmly believe that voting for me as an Independent candidate will provide a truly independent voice for the residents of the West Midlands and job security for police service employees.

  • The Chamberlain News intends to publish the statements of all PCC candidates from across the West Midlands and the wider region. Please send them to [email protected]

 

 

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