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Can you help?
What is the economic outlook?
Response to complaints
Local news
Hi all,
With the election probably just three months away, I need to shift these
email updates from mainly discussing issues in non-partisan terms to
discussing the alternative positions for you to consider when you come to
vote. I remain committed to keeping a civilised tone (you'll find my
response to three complaints from my Conservative opponent below) and
avoiding attacks on personalities, and hope you will find them
interesting.
I'll of course continue to pass on local news as well – you'll find an
update on Tesco, an invitation to join a separate email list on Toton
Sidings, and an invitation to a youth choir below.
1. This week's quote
"In other constituencies I'd consider voting Liberal Democrat or Green,
but in Broxtowe the only realistic outcome is that Nick Palmer holds the
seat or is replaced by the Conservative candidate. Those of us who care
about progressive politics and respect his work should rally behind him.
If we just vote for party tickets and don't support good MPs when they
need it, we shouldn't complain if Parliament doesn't meet our
expectations. " Professor David Kendall
2. Can you help?
Since I don't have the funds to post everything I'd like to, my ability
simply to put my case to voters is almost entirely dependent on volunteers
kindly delivering a few hundred copies each of my updates to people in
their area. As there are 70,000 of you, this is quite a logistical
challenge. All candidates will get a free delivery by Royal Mail of an
election address, but beyond that it's up to us to find the legs.
If you would like to help me get a fair hearing, please let me know
(unless you're doing this already, of course). What this would involve is
that we'd bring you the number of copies that you specify of what I'm
putting out (general guide: if you offer to do 200, you're committing
yourself to about two hours), and you would deliver them to a couple of
streets in the following days.
If you'd like to do this, please email me with:
• Your name and address (so I know where to deliver the leaflets) and
phone number (so we can arrange a convenient time to drop them off)
• Whether you have transport so could deliver a mile or two away from
home, or it's important that the streets to be very close to your home
I really can't stress enough how important this is. My margin last time
was less than 5% and my best assessment of the likely outcome is that
there will be less than a few hundred votes in it either way. If you think
I do a good job for you, this is really the time that will decide if I can
go on doing it, and people will only vote for me if they see what I've got
to say. If you can give a hand, that'd be great.
3. The economic outlook
The position continues to improve gradually, with particular encouragement
from the best manufacturing figures for 15 years yesterday, led by
exports:
http://www.guardian .co.uk/business/ 2010/feb/ 01/manufacturing
-sector-growth- soars
I remain cautious about unemployment despite two months of good news – I
think that's going to wobble for several months more before the pickup in
orders leads to companies taking on more workers again. Overall, though,
we're clearly starting to emerge from the worst of it.
The debate now is focused on how quickly the Government and Bank of
England should ease up on the support for the economy and low interest
rates switch to reductions in spending and debt reduction. Up to last
week, there was a fairly clear difference of a year in this between the
parties: Labour favours only easing up very gradually during 2010-11,
whereas George Osborne was proposing an emergency budget immediately after
the election with swingeing cuts.
The Conservatives now appear to be rethinking their position, and even
though it's my job to follow these things I'm genuinely unclear what their
policy now is, or even if they have a definite policy one way or the
other. The danger of cutting back too quickly is that not only will it tip
the economy back into recession but it will actually make debt reduction
harder (because companies that are doing badly pay less tax).
From 2011-12 the Government proposes to cut back in departments that don't
involve front-line services (i.e. health, education, policing, social
care). I've been critical of all parties for their vagueness on this, and
the current score is that Labour has identified a quarter of what will be
needed while the Conservatives have identified less than a tenth. That's
progress but I think we should do more: all parties need to treat voters
like adults. Part of the Government's recent better polling is due to
having a more coherent post-recession strategy than the Conservatives, and
the lesson to learn from that is that frankness actually pays off.
You've seen my proposals for cuts in capital and ongoing spending earlier
and whoever is in power, if I'm your MP after May I will still be pressing
for serious, transparent medium-term planning so we all know where we are.
As a personal contribution to a serious debate, I'm also continuing to
resist supporting significant new spending commitments, however desirable
– for instance, I've campaigned up to last year for electrification of the
central rail network, but I'm now just saying that if more electrification
is done I want us to be first in line.
4. Three complaints
My Conservative opponent, Miss Soubry, has emailed to take issue on
several points and specifically to ask me to correct things which she
thinks are wrong. As I've said before, I want to fight the election
fairly, I don't want to have a personal squabble and I've no wish to
misrepresent her, so here goes:
(a) She asks me to stop referring to her as Ms Soubry and use "Miss"
instead. I'm happy to oblige – no offence was intended. I usually use Ms
unless otherwise requested, since it's neutral on past and present marital
status.
(b) She writes: "I am told you are also telling people I support Ken
Clarkes views on Europe. In fact, I support Ken on every issue but do not
share all his views on Europe." The specific issue to which I was
referring was joining the Euro, which both Miss Soubry and Ken Clarke have
said they favour joining if business indicates it would be useful. I
genuinely don't understand how she can support Ken "on every issue", yet
not on Europe (isn't Europe an issue?), and they do seem to agree on the
Euro (with each other and with me), but as requested I'm passing on her
statement.
(c) She also writes in response to my saying that she spoke at a
Conservative conference in favour of allowing 16-year-olds to buy alcohol:
"I have never said any such thing. Would you be so good as to make that
clear in your next email. You did not attend the Conservative Party
conference and have never provided any evidence to support your claim."
Well, a reason that I came to that view is this report on her debate from
the conference from the Western Morning News, whose reporter was present
at the "Dragon's Den" session where the issue arose:
"Parliamentary candidate Anna Soubry ran into trouble with her idea to
simplify the age at which children came of age. It was, she said, madness
to allow children to have sex, pay tax and marry at 16 when they couldn't
vote or buy a pint until they were 18.
Her solution? To ban youngsters - including her own 16-year-old daughter -
from driving and marrying until they were 18 and lower the age at which
they could go to pubs and clubs.
"I am very worried here," said one Tory dragon, as it began to sink in
that Ms Soubry was suggesting youngsters should be banned from getting
married until at least two years after they had started having sex and
going to the pub. That's a bit much to swallow even in the new Tory
Party."
So far as I know, the newspaper wasn't challenged over this piece, and it
has always seemed to me that a reasonable conclusion from this article was
that Miss Soubry favoured allowing 16-year-olds to buy alcohol. First, I
don't think they'd want to go into a pub or club and just sip a glass of
milk or tonic water. Second, although it is in fact legal to allow
16-year-olds into pubs and clubs, there's a reason why few allow it – once
they're in, it's impossible to stop them buying booze, either directly or
by giving the money to mates. Clubs tend to be dark, crowded, and noisy –
it's simply impossible to check that this doesn't happen.
However, she maintains firmly that her speech did not include any proposal
to legalise buying alcohol at 16 and that she is in fact against doing so,
and I'm passing that on as requested, so you know her position. I am
trying to be fair to her, but with respect I hope we can now return to
more immediate political issues.
5. Tesco update, Toton Sidings updates and local choir invitation
Tesco: as you may have seen, things are stirring. My understanding is that
construction will start in February with a view to opening by Christmas.
Closer to the date, I hope to organise a public meeting with the manager
to press them on how they will deliver their promises of working with the
community – such as the map of small shops in the area which they
suggested they could have in the entrance (a reader points out that I
should ask Sainsbury to do this too – a good idea) and a separate area for
local produce.
The Toton Sidings clearance remains an acute issue but I've made some
progress – following my complaint to the Forestry Commission, they seem
likely to take action, and I've now spoken to the new owners' agent. I've
set up a separate email list about this since I appreciate that if you
live in, say, Nuthall, you probably won't want all the details. If you'd
like to be on that list, please let me know. I am inviting people to a
meeting at the Greenwood Centre on Saturday 13th at 4pm to put those who
aren't on email in the picture and give the chance to discuss where things
stand.
I've been asked to pass on this invitation:
Are you 18-35 and keen on singing? If so the newly formed Nottingham Choir
Project would like to hear from you. We rehearse on a Wednesday from 7-9pm
at the Friends Meeting House on Clarendon Street, and intend to cover a
range of material from pop to classical. If you're keen but worried about
not being good enough don't worry, we're not exactly Simon Cowell, there
are no auditions and you don't have to read music. So come and have a go!
We ask for a £2 contribution for the hire of the room. Email
nottschoirproject@ googlemail. com or phone Dave on 0781 203 0377
Best wishes,
Nick
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