Les Bonner

The Conservative Party is beginning to get nervous, and there are worries amongst Tory grassroots’ supporters about an apparent lack of connection between David Cameron and crucial swing voters.  Tory activists have apparently got the jitters and they fear that they might not win the forthcoming election after all.

Three opinion polls yesterday showed the Conservatives’ lead over Labour has narrowed to as little as seven points, which would not be enough to win an overall majority.

One poll suggested that Gordon Brown could even be returned to Downing Street if there was a high turn-out. But the prospect of that or a hung parliament is beginning to terrify many the party activists.

They are increasingly concerned by their leader’s dithering over policy and what some insist is his inability to connect with voters, particularly in the vital northern constituencies.

The infamous airbrushed campaign poster, his backtracking over financial policies and Europe, and his current “networking” trip to the economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, merely serve to reinforce the image a PR man lacking in heartfelt convictions.

Writing yesterday, Tim Montgomerie, the influential editor of the grassroots Conservativehome.com, described the latest polls as “slightly worrying”.

He said:

“If David Cameron is to regain his large lead he needs to make a more positive case for voting Conservative.

“The Tories’ number one job must be to frame this election as a choice between a hung parliament and a strong Conservative government.

“Voters considering supporting Nick Clegg’s party need to know that only a strong Conservative government can deal with the deficit.”

He said Mr Cameron had “gaffed” and “sown confusion” last week when he conceded that cutting public spending too early could jeopardise the economic recovery - exactly what Labour and the Liberal Democrats have claimed.

The apparent dithering has fuelled speculation of disharmony among Mr Cameron’s top team, with some claiming there is now a rift with Shadow Chancellor George Osborne.

However, Mr Montgomerie said the Tory leader needed to stick to the tough spending line.

Recent council by-elections had shown a sharp drop in support for the party, completely against the national picture, they said.

Last Thursday, the Tories lost a council seat in Market Harborough, Leicestershire, when the party suffered a 14% swing to the Liberal Democrats.

The seat falls within the constituency of Shadow Attorney General Edward Garnier, one of the Liberal Democrats’ top targets in the general election.

Liberal Democrat MP and Nick Clegg’s Chief of Staff, Danny Alexander said the election would be “wide open”.

Danny Alexander said: “More and more people are realizing that the Conservatives under David Cameron can’t be trusted.

“A party that would cut taxes for the richest will not make the country fairer.

“David Cameron, as people are realizing, will mean business as usual for Britain.”

Burglary rates have dropped by 41% in North East Lincolnshire since the beginning of September, bucking the national trend”

Working together is essential to combat burglary. Safer and Stronger Communities brings all the responsible authorities and agencies together to help reduce burglaries in your area. We also offer crime prevention advice and support for victims.

Reduce the risk!

Be aware that you’re much less likely to be a victim of burglary if you take easy but effective steps to secure your home.

Households with no security measures in place are 10 times more likely to be burgled than those with such simple security measures as window locks and deadlocks.

The more secure your property, the less likely it is you will be burgled. Top tips to deter the burglars:

•  Restrict access to your back garden by having a solid fence and lockable gate.
•  Always lock your doors and windows, even when just popping to the shops (or even when in the back garden).
•  Fit deadlocks to all outside doors - burglars hate them because you need a key to open them from the inside as well as the outside.
•  Put key operated locks on all downstairs or accessible windows - burglars don’t like having to smash windows because of the noise and the danger of cutting themselves.
•  Try to make sure your TV, DVD etc and other valuables can’t be seen through your windows.
•  Use a timer switch to turn lights and radios on when you are out or away to give the impression that your house is occupied.
•  Install a visible burglar alarm - and turn it on especially over night.

Beat the bogus callers

‘Distraction burglars’, or bogus callers, will distract you in order to get into your home to steal your money or belongings. If anyone you don’t know turns up at your door, you should always ask to see their identification before letting them in.

Unfortunately, the elderly are especially vulnerable, but we are working with Age Concern, Help the Aged and the police to ensure they don’t fall victim to this particularly unpleasant crime.

Follow our ‘Lock, Stop, Chain, Check’ advice below and keep yourself safe.

Is your home secure?

If you are concerned about your home security please contact our Safer Homes Scheme who will be able to visit and assess your security needs. They may also be able to improve your home security there and then.

For more information or to book a visit please call the: Safer Homes Scheme 01472 324987

Burglary in North East Lincolnshire

Safer and Stronger Communities have made great progress in the fight to tackle burglary throughout the borough.We are working hard to make sure you and your belongings are save but we need your help; keepyour windows and doors locked- don’t give burglars a chance.

We have made significant progress in reducing burglary over the last year. From April to September 2009, there were:

•  29% less recorded burglaries meaning 240 less homes being burgled than at the same time last year.
•  A massive 41% less burglaries since the beginning of the year.

As the recession took hold, the expectation was that burglary rates would rise. While this has happened in some areas of the country, in North East Lincolnshire the opposite is true. Burglaries have fallen from 126 in January to 76 in August.

The partnership has worked hard to achieve reductions. Tactics have included focusing on our most prolific offenders, posting ‘hairy hands’ through doors and windows that have been left open and using new technology like Bluetooth to get messages in the hotspots.

However, the reductions are not only down to the partnership - the public have played their part and by helping us we have been able to help them.

Football’s economic model is broken and many clubs are in danger of following banks and construction companies into oblivion, the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, has warned

Vince Cable who is an economist and is considered by many to be the most trusted politician in the country, said that Crystal Palace going into administration could be the start of a chain reaction.

Vince Cable said:

“Football is a sector of the economy that simply hasn’t faced up to the realities of the crisis, they’ve just gone on as if the world hasn’t changed,” said Cable. “It’s a combination of extraordinary financing arrangements, and players who are paid absolutely ludicrous salaries which are clearly beyond the means of all but a handful of clubs to pay on a sustainable basis.

“If the FA and the clubs have any sense they will deal with this matter now, otherwise we are going to see a major upheaval as clubs discover they simply cannot function with very high leverage, essentially borrowings against future earnings. Interest rates are currently low, but they will almost certainly rise, and a lot of this debt will not be payable.”

Vince Cable was speaking following the revelation that debt at Manchester United’s parent company Red Football has risen to £716.5million in the year to June 2009, and many United fans at Wednesday’s Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester City protested against the club’s American owners by wearing green and gold scarves, the original colours of the club.

Vince Cable also called for the tax treatment of sport’s governing bodies to change to reward the contribution sport makes to the wider community.

“The clubs obviously have to pay VAT, there’s no way round that, nor could you exempt big clubs from corporation tax; after all the Glazers investment in Man United is a corporate concern, but it is an issue with the sports federations, like the Rugby Football Union and the Rugby Football League, because they are umbrella organisations supporting the sport and promoting community sport, and for them to be paying corporation tax is much more questionable.”

David Cameron has been accused of going back on his promises to tackle Britain’s £178 billion budget deficit after he said there would be no “swingeing cuts” in the first year of a Tory government.

The Conservative leader insisted they would make “a start” on reducing the burden of borrowing this year, but Labour and the Liberal  Demorats said he was backtracking on his promises of rapid action.

Cameron’s comments came as Gordon Brown used his weekly podcast on the Downing Street website to warn that the economy still needed support and that cutting too soon would risk it going back into recession, and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson launched an strong attack on the Tory leader, calling him ”unpatriotic” for “talking down” Britain by comparing our current situation to that of the stricken Greek economy.

Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman Vince Cable said the Conservatives had got themselves into a “terrible muddle”. He said:

“I understood until a day or so ago that the reason the Conservatives were different was that they were promising very rapid and severe cuts immediately. Now they seem to be retreating from that.”

As the climate change chief whose research body wrote a report warning that the glaciers in the Himalayas could melt by 2035 and earned a Nobel Prize for his work, you might think that Dr Rajendra Pachauri would be doing everything he could to reduce his own carbon footprint, but as controversy continues over the false‘Glaciergate’ claims which are contained in a report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,  of which he is the leader, Dr Pachauri seems to show little commitment to reducing his own carbon footprint.

On Friday, according to the Mail, Dr Pachauri could have walked, or cycled, or used the eco-friendly electric car provided for him, known in the UK as G-Wiz , for the one-mile journey from home to his Delhi office, but instead, he used his personal chauffeur to collect him from his £4.5million home in a 1.8-litre Toyota Corolla, and later, the chauffeur also collected Dr Pachauri from the office of the Energy and Resources Institute, clearly ignoring the institute’s own literature, which gives visitors tips on how to reduce pollution by using buses.

Dr Pachauri, who once told people they should eat less meat to cut greenhouse gas emissions, was driven to an upmarket restaurant popular with expatriates and well-off tourists just half a mile from his luxurious family home.

As he waited outside the institute office for Dr Pachauri, the chauffeur said:

“Dr Pachauri does use the electric car sometimes but most of the time he uses the Toyota.”

The electric car might be kinder to the environment and more suitable for short trips, explained the chauffeur – who has worked for the environmentalist for 19 years, but it was too small for Dr Pachauri and a driver to share.

At his office, Dr Pachauri has four electric cars at his disposal.  The institute bought the battery-powered cars to reduce pollution on short trips by staff around town. One of those cars has been set aside for his personal use.

The following article was written by Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman Vince Cable, and originally appeared in the Mail on Sunday:

The bubble of hope that the economic crisis may be over, and recovery soon established, burst last week.

The recession is officially over but growth is almost invisible. The next set of results will be produced in April.

There is now a realistic possibility that Gordon Brown will go into the Election in May with the economy, at best, bumping along the bottom.

 The Government’s rallying cry will have to be: ‘It’s awful but it could have been a lot worse’.

I am not surprised. I have often said in this column that this isn’t a recession like those of the early Eighties and early Nineties.

The British economy had a massive heart attack when the arteries of the banking system seized up.

The banks dangerously overextended themselves through reckless lending in the artificial property boom and by building a bizarre pyramid of complex, paper products which they didn’t understand and which eventually collapsed in a heap.

As a result we are now, as a country, considerably poorer than we were a year ago.

More positively, the patient is still alive thanks to a powerful cocktail of economic medicines: interest rates cut to near zero; the artificial creation of money (so-called ‘quantitative easing’); massive budget deficits; rescue and semi-nationalisation of the banking system; and a big devaluation.

But the country is still on a dripfeed and any honest economic doctor will warn that the danger of a relapse into ‘double-dip recession’ is high. We need a tough stay in the debt addiction clinic and a different lifestyle.

And we have to recognise that much damage has been done. People have been hurt.

Millions have either lost their jobs, been forced into part-time working, unpaid internships and premature retirement or, in the private sector, have taken pay cuts to keep their jobs.

A lot of older people have no income from their savings and have seen their pension funds slashed in value.

Thousands of business people have seen good companies, the product of a lifetime’s work, forced to the wall by banks tightening their credit conditions.

The question now is: how best to support recovery?

The most immediate issue is what to do about the vast government borrowing that has arisen from a collapse in tax revenue - currently at its lowest share of the economy for 50 years - and rising public spending.

The Government has taken a lot of the cost of the banking collapse and recession on to its own books but we, the taxpayer, have to pay the bill.

I believe government borrowing has to be reduced; but the timing has to reflect the health of the economy.

Two hundred press-ups in the gym, as ordered by Dr Osborne, could kill the patient. I spent some time in the City of London last week talking to some of the bond dealers who are said to hold the country’s future in their hands.

They are obsessed with the country’s credit rating and warn that we are in danger of losing our triple-A status which enables the Government to borrow cheaply.

They have to be taken seriously.

It would be reckless to plunge the economy back into recession through the immediate large-scale slashing of public services and jobs because the Government’s deficit would widen instead of contract.

We have to be sure that the private sector can grow again, creating new jobs, if government contracts.

Some very difficult decisions on public spending do need to be made and it is important that they are the right decisions - not damaging cuts in investment that undermine the country’s long-term future.

But there will have to be discipline over publicsector pay, especially at the top, and some cutbacks in numbers as there have been in the private sector.

It’s time to wean the public sector off its all-pervasive bonus culture. It is possible to run the public sector more efficiently, though no one should pretend that this is easy.

Nor is it honest to say that some government budgets, such as that of the NHS, should be ‘ring-fenced’ from cuts.

By doing so, the Government and the Tories are condemning other valued services to deeply damaging cuts.

The process of rehabilitation will take years not months. Mervyn King, at the Bank of England, has warned of a decade of hard slog.

This can happen only if the public understands and supports what their government is trying to do. What people tell me is they need a sense of where the country is going.

If there is to be a decade of hard slog and slow rehabilitation what is essential is a plan for recovery and it’s down to government to provide that sense of direction.

In the next few months there will be much drama and excitement over every statistic emerging about the health of the economy.

A set of quarterly figures does not, in itself, mean a great deal ( especially as the figures are usually revised). But the way forward does.

Read more: http://tinyurl.com/yd3acxa

Austin Mitchell was made to repay £10,500 of mortgage expenses last week by the Commons authorities after breaching the expenses rules, and on TV tomorrow (Monday) night viewers will see that he was unable to stick to the rules once again in a reality programme on Channel 4

Mr Mitchell, is one of five MPs who were asked to live on some of Britain’s run - down estates in the show “Tower Block Of Commons.”

According to today’s Mail on Sunday the Labour MP for Grimsby and his wife were asked to give up their wallets and mobile phones for a week and asked to wear tracksuits, hoodies and trainers and mix with families as they exerienced what it is like to to manage on £50 a week each.

Unlike the other MPs, Mr Mitchell insisted on bringing his wife with him, and he and Linda then make their week in a Hull high-rise council flat more comfortable by frequently spending extra money.

Recovering heroin addict and former prostitute Selina Bell, 31, who showed the Mitchells round Orchard Park Estate said:

“The day after they arrived, Linda took one look at the Primark tracksuit Austin had changed into and said “He’s not wearing that””

“Then, Linda demanded the producers give Austin back his wallet and mobile phone and I don’t think they ever seriously tried to live within the budget.

“They hardly cooked for themselves and kept buying fish and chips, which we can only afford once in a while.

“One night when they did cook, they hosted a lavish dinner for about ten of us from the estate, with home-made fish pie, red and white wine and Bacardi. The pudding was fruit with crème fraiche, which I’d never had before.

“When I asked Linda what happened to the budget, she swept her hand over the table and said, “Here’s the budget””

The four-part series suggests the Mitchells furnish their second-floor flat from a Salvation Army shop, but the Mr Mitchell admitted that a table and chairs were borrowed from friends and a mattress was bought new by the production company.

Former TV journalist Mr Mitchell said last night that he had never agreed to abide by the producers’ restrictions, as they were ‘silly’.  He said:

“I’m 75, so walking around in a hoodie makes me look completely ridiculous; that’s not how pensioners dress on Orchard Park or any estate,”

“Linda and I agreed to take part on our own terms. I don’t know how much we spent during the week but it was a damn sight more than the £100 the production company gave us – and we weren’t given a fee for doing the programme.

“We had a nice dinner party and wanted to introduce our neighbours on the estate to Grimsby fish pie, which they’d never had before.”

“It was up to the MPs whether they wanted to live by the letter and spirit of the rules – and they were not aware that they would be asked to do this until their host residents challenged them to do so.

A Channel 4 spokesman said:

“The flat in Hull was provided part- furnished and more came from the Salvation Army. Austin and Linda asked for a new mattress, so the production team provided one. They also borrowed furniture from friends.”

Households across the country have had to crankturn up the heating during the recent UK cold spell, but it won’t be long beforethe fuel bills start to arrive, and many people could be in for a big shock

Although estimates vary, price comparison website energyhelpline.com  said the cold spell could raise the average January fuel bill up by almost 50% to £227.

It has been estimated that the could spell could give a predicted £100 million boost in profits for the UK’s ‘big six’ suppliers this year, which has given rise to accusations of profiteering from consumer groups.

Centrica, the owner of British Gas, has been estimated to have made as much as £50million extra from the cold spell, a lot of this from people who have to choose between heating and eating, but the energy companies insist that the increased profits are the result of higher usage rather than rising prices, with daily demand surpassing the previous record, which was set in January 2003, according to network operator National Grid.

They add that energy costs have been slow to fall due to the price of stocks bought for this winter 18 months ago or longer, when wholesale costs were rocketing.

This explanation has done little to soothe groups like Age Concern which warns that pensioners will be hit with a “double whammy” of higher bills and inflation, which is also likely to rise in the first half of this year.

Age Concern estimates 2.7 million UK pensioner households, or one in three, live in fuel poverty. Older people are also more likely to rely on savings income which has been squeezed by record low interest rates.

There is now increasing concern that pensioners are facing a stark choice of either going without many everyday necessities or leave off their heating. recently Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Steve Webb estimated that up to 1.7 million pensioners will miss out on Cold Weather Payments. Steve Webb believes that the UK’s state pension provisions are not enough to really make a difference.

Steve Webb said:

“We need a more generous, universal pension based on citizenship that would give pensioners a sense of dignity and a stable income in retirement.” Steve Webb added that the current means-tested system that is in place to oversee the allocation of benefits among pensioners is “undignified”.

He also highlighted the problems that fuel poverty appears to be causing for a number of older people. Steve Webb called for a simplification of the country’s general benefits system, in order to support people more effectively.

Steve Webb said changes to the pension system had failed to help many older people.

“It is still the case that pensioners who are forced to rely on the state pension and Labour’s complex and undignified system of means-tested benefits are more likely to live in fuel poverty,” he said.

“The basic state pension is simply too little to live on for the millions of pensioners who have no other income.”

Local authorities are calling for an urgent meeting with health ministers to discuss funding for the Personal Care at Home Bill, announced in the Queen’s Speech and now going through Parliament.

The new law aims to help an estimated 400,000 older and disabled people in England with severe needs to continue living independently in their own homes by providing them with free care in getting dressed, washing and eating.

Currently, council means-tests limmit support to those who have assets worth less than £23,500, which leaves tens of thousands of pensioners to pay for their own help, rely on family members and neighbours or else to move into a residential care home.

The Government claims that the new provision which begins in October, would cost £670million, with central government providing £450million and  local councils expected to make cuts of £250million to provide the rest of the cost of the care.

If this is true, local councils like North East lincolnshire will be forced to raise make cuts elsewhere, or raising council tax to make up the difference

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, which is an organisation for senior council officials with responsibility for elderly care, claims the Government has “significantly under-estimated” the real cost of the extra provision.

Its research shows that the average cost of 6.54 hours of care a week costs £200 a week to provide, far more than the £103 claimed by ministers.

Councils will also have to carry out more assessments of needs, as those who currently pay for their own care may become eligible for free services.

The ADASS says the total cost is likely to top £1 billion, with councils expected to find about £500million themselves.

Jenny Owen, ADASS President, said:

“If the final policy means that people with critical care needs will not have to contribute to their care needs regardless of the cost, then funding pressures on local government will clearly be well above the sum estimated by Government.

“Councils will additionally have to bear the costs of undertaking an increased number of assessments as people currently paying for their care enter the system to claim their new, free entitlement.”

David Cameron yesterday changed his plans to reduce state spending.

The Tory leader said he would tackle the deficit immediately but said cuts did not have to be ‘ particularly extensive’ at first.

His comments suggest a lighter approach to public finances after warnings of a possible double dip recession.

Chancellor Alistair Darling has warned that if cuts re made too quickly, deficit reduction could delay economic recovery.

Speaking at a lunch with business leaders, Mr Cameron said:

“Plans that don’t start now are not particularly meaningful. I think you have to see some early action, and early action doesn’t have to be particularly extensive, it just has to be early, and it has got to be action.”

Mr Cameron has promised to tackle the record £178 billion budget deficit following the release this week of weaker-than-expected growth figures.

In a speech at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, the Tory leader said:

“Our reputation rests on rejecting the course of inaction and the path of least resistance.

“Instead we must be bold enough to make the right judgment - however difficult that may be - to ensure the long-health of our economy and restore Britain’s reputation on the world stage.

‘The stark truth is that today, Britain’s reputation is at risk. To deal with this we need to make sure people can look at our budget deficit without worrying about our creditworthiness.”

Conservative sources denied that Mr Cameron going back on his pledge to cut spending.

 Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable  and Treasury chief secretary Liam Byrne have both criticised Cameron for changing his plans, but Vince Cable, said:

“The Tories’ confused statements about cuts show that they don’t really know what to do about the economy.

“In their desperation to sound tough on public spending, the Tories didn’t take economic reality into account.

“It is of course necessary to cut public spending but this must be done when the economy is strong enough to cope.

“The economy remains dependent on artificial money creation and a Government running a massive deficit, but with growth of just 0.1%, immediately slashing government spending would be disastrous.”