Tag: Manchester

ARE WE AT THE END OF OUR TEATHER WITH LIB DEMS?

 

 

Last year in a Scottish local council ward a penguin got more votes than the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Actually it was an independent dressed in a penguin suit, nevertheless across the country they lost 74 councillors in elections that mirrored their performance in recent polls across the north of England.

 

Whether the site of sassanach Lib Dems heading for Glasgow this weekend for their party conference will appease the Tartan Army of Scottish voters remains to be seen.

 

The decision of the “catastrophically depressed” Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather to quit at the next election might be dismissed as a fit of pique by a sacked minister, but her declared reasons for going bear some examination. This is because they address the major problems Lib Dems have had in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester since the coalition was formed.

 

Before 2010 the party managed to be an organisation that disaffected Tories could vote for in the South while fed up Labour voters could switch to the Lib Dems on the basis that they were sort of on the left and were reasonably progressive.

 

Now in office the Lib Dems have been tainted in many of their ex supporters eyes by the difficult decisions of government. It will ultimately be a decision for the whole electorate in 2015 whether the pupil premium, lifting the poorest out of income tax and other Lib Dem backed measures will be enough to save them from electoral oblivion, but Teather has highlighted some problems they will face in getting a reasonable vote in the North and Scotland.

 

Her central charge is that Nick Clegg’s party no longer fights hard enough on issues like social justice and immigration. She cites Lib Dem support for a cap on welfare, a £1000 visa charge plan for immigrants and the government’s vans touring London urging illegal immigrants to “go home or face arrest.”

 

A large number of Lib Dems are deeply worried about association with the Conservatives but feel it is a price worth paying to have some influence in office. However one has the impression that there is a faction who have enjoyed their time in office and are quite happy with the party moving right.

 

The Lib Dem conference is by far and away the most democratic of the three gatherings we shall witness this autumn. It remains a place where real policy is made but there is nothing on the agenda about the strategy for the crucial period coming up for the party.

Do they stick with the coalition till the end? What will they do if the Tories emerge as the largest party in 2015?

 

There will be plenty of talk about this in the bars of Glasgow but on the conference floor the theme will be the creation of jobs. The Lib Dems say a million have been created since 2010 and they want a million more. They want to double the number of businesses and train the apprentices for them. They will be debating an end to Britain’s four boat Trident nuclear submarine fleet and only want an in/out EU referendum if more powers are planned to be devolved to Brussels.

 

Good progressive stuff but the hand of the party’s right can be seen in the resolution on whether to restore the 50% tax rate for those earning £150,000. Conference can vote to endorse George Osborne’s cut to 45% or go back to 50% only if a review indicates that the tax take would exceed the cost of its introduction.

 

The improving economy is strengthening the position of right wing Lib Dems who would feel quite comfortable with another deal with the Tories, but that approach will be hard to sell in working class areas of the North.

 

 

AFTER PRINCE GEORGE, LET’S GET BACK TO THE ECONOMY

If only we could have an election now some Tory politicians might be thinking as they begin their summer break. A new born prince, the heatwave and cycling and cricket success have given our spirits a boost. Most important of all there is a feeling that the economy is turning even in the North which always lags behind the South East because of successive governments’ failure to have an effective regional policy.

 

House prices are edging up here and jobs are being created in the private sector to help absorb the haemorrhaging of public employment. In that connection the news from Bentley in Crewe that they are to build the company’s new sports utility vehicle enhances the North West’s successful car industry alongside Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port and Jaguar Land Rover at Halewood.

 

The key man in all this is the Chancellor George Osborne. He rivals the Prime Minister in importance when it comes to trying to stear the Tories to an outright victory in 2015. This is partly because of his power over economic decision making but also because of his central role in political strategy. For this reason Labour call him the part time Chancellor. It is a foolish charge. It makes sense to have Osborne tied closely to political decision making.

It is Osborne’s belief in concentrating on the main issue of economic recovery that has led to the ditching of “peripheral” issues like plain packet fags and a minimum price for alcohol. Lynton Crosby, the Tory party advisor has taken the hit for this regrettable U turn, but the Chancellor will have been involved.

 

I recently took the opportunity to observe George Osborne up close. He was giving a lecture in memory of that great broadcaster and champion of the North Brian Redhead. To the Chancellor’s credit, he spoke a lot about Brian and didn’t use the occasion for a bog standard political message.

 

He acknowledged the importance of having a northern constituency (Tatton). He told us his daughter had just been made Rose Queen at her school at Wildboarclough in Cheshire and that he was aware that things looked different from a northern perspective. That was certainly Brian Redhead’s view, Mr Osborne told his audience He missed out on the editorship of the Guardian because he refused to move south with the paper. For a long time he co-presented the Today programme from Manchester until being forced to join his colleagues in London. I used to join him on the train north on a Friday and he always said he was glad to be coming home.

 

Osborne concluded by observing that the North was not a monolith and should not be stereotyped. Although Redhead had worked in Manchester, he was born in the North East and lived in the Peak District. The Chancellor claimed that Cheshire had more private sector jobs than London.

 

It was an interesting and different sort of speech from a man that it is not easy to warm to. What will matter in the next two years however is not being liked but keeping the economic recovery going as interest rates begin to rise.

 

Follow me at www.jimhancock.co.uk

 

 

NORTHERN REVOLUTION: BRING IT ON

On July 4th Downtown is hosting a vital conference to discuss how northern cities like Leeds and Liverpool can accelerate change and economic growth. It is well timed if an event I attended at the Commons this week is anything to go by.

 

The Smith Institute and Regional Studies Association were posing the question “Where next for Local Enterprise Partnerships?” LEPs were set up in the wake of the wholesale destruction of regional structures by the incoming Coalition government in the summer 0f 2010.

 

LEPs were to be slim, local, business led organisations to drive economic growth. The problem was,initially at least, they had little money or structure and their targets were unclear. Over the last three years they have largely been left to get on with it. The result is that across the North of England LEPs have evolved in very different ways.

 

In Manchester and Leeds they have been able to take advantage of the combined authorities of the local councils. Liverpool’s LEP, after a slow start, inherited the infrastructure of the Mersey Partnership. In Cheshire and Lancashire the organisations are smaller.

 

Despite the good work they are doing, the big question remains are they fit for purpose in trying to close the North South divide. The conclusion of the Commons conference I attended was that they are not.

 

As a convinced regionalist I found the discussion frustrating. There was frequent mention of the need for the LEPs to work more closely together to create a critical mass to be effective. The logic points to a need for a strategic organisation across the North to take major decisions on transport, planning and infrastructure. That’s not going to happen under this government or a possible Labour administration who’ve said they will work with the “patchwork quilt” of local structures. How daft is that?

 

Reference was made to a recent Ernst and Young report on direct foreign investment into the UK. There was much rejoicing when the report came out that the North West had seen a 13% rise with Yorkshire not far behind. However the comparable figures for Scotland Wale4s and Northern Ireland were respectively 49%,244% and 71%. What do they have in common? Powerful, well resourced devolved government. Simon Alport Ernst and Young’s North West senior partner concluded that the closure of the Regional Development Agencies may have undermined the performance of English regions. Not may Simon, it did.

 

The Commons conference concluded that the government lacked a coherent regional policy with a bewildering patchwork of initiatives from the Regional Growth Fund to Enterprise Zones, City Deals to community budgets.

 

Andy Pike from Newcastle University believes the government is torn between centralism as it battles austerity and a commitment to localism. The result is that LEPs operate in a world of multiple actors which is time consuming and lacking in accountability.

 

There were other opinions. Nigel Guy from Leeds LEP saw no problem with different LEPs going at different speeds and wanted more power for the City Regions.

 

Blackpool MP Gordon Marsden was sceptical of the argument that powerful City Regions in Manchester and Liverpool could help his town. He recalled a conversation with Manchester Council leader Sir Richard Leese when they were battling over who would have a super casino. Marsden had told him on a good day the “Manchester” effect would stretch to Preston, on a bad day to Bolton but never Blackpool.

 

An important indication of government policy will come shortly in the comprehensive spending review when the Chancellor announces the size of the single growth pot for local devolved spending. Will London let go of enough money to make a difference up North? Don’t hold your breath.

 

 

 

 

 

“DON’T TALK NORTH DOWN”: ERIC PICKLES

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Eric Pickles seems to be relishing his role as the axe man in chief of Town Hall spending. The Communities and Local Government Secretary was in typical form addressing the parliamentary press the other day, telling us that councils knew the cuts were coming and that they had the capacity to be “enormously adaptive.”

 

He left his most substantial jibe for northern councils complaining about the unfairness of the cuts. He said their leaders were like the characters in the famous Monty Python sketch where they compete in telling each other what a deprived background they had. You know the one. “You were lucky to live in a slum; we lived in a cardboard box!”

 

Mr Pickles referred in particular to the comments of the Mayor of Liverpool. Joe Anderson. He has led the charge against, what The Mayor sees, as the disproportionate impact the cuts are having on northern cities. The Minister said the problem with this approach was that having painted a picture of poverty and deprivation, the Mayor would then say what a great place Liverpool was to invest in. Pickles then made a similar criticism of the leadership of Bradford Council, an authority he once led.

 

So has he got a point? Well the Liverpool Mayor and the leaders of our great northern cities like Leeds and Manchester are in a bind. Politically they have to speak up for their communities. They also have to try and lure investors in. If too bleak a picture is painted of the impact the cuts are going to have, it could well put off some potential employers.

 

Meanwhile Mr Pickles continues to rough up the councils. He is after all one of the token northerners in a cabinet of posh boys. He is frustrated that some authorities like Manchester have managed to get around his 2% council tax limit because levies by police and fire authorities are not under Town Hall control. He is already threatening fire and brimstone for the rebels next year.

 

“Sooner or later councils are going to have to sit down with their electorates and decide what to spend” said Mr Pickles.

 

Then there is the Graph of Doom. That’s not something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Instead it is a forecast that at the current rate of cuts and the growing need for elderly care, it won’t be long before councils will only have sufficient funds to empty the bins and look after the old. They won’t be able to do anything else. What does Indiana Pickles say about this Graph of Doom?

 

“Share services, end duplication, adapt. You knew it was coming,” that’s his uncompromising message.

 

Added to all these challenges, councils are soon going to face the ending of restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians coming to Britain. How many school places and houses should Town Halls prepare for?

 

Eric Bloodaxe’s answer is honest if not helpful. “Nobody knows. All that government can do is be careful of the ‘pull factors’ like housing and health benefits.” He then added an awkward truth about the Eastern European immigrants: “very few carrots would be picked without them.”