MPFree
Michael Foster’s
Parliamentary Bulletin
Hello everyone and welcome to my MPFree for
May. As ever its been an incredibly busy month and there’s a lot I
want to talk about so lets get started!
Local
Elections
As
I hope you are aware Labour locally achieved the third best result
in the Country for the Party and actually won two seats (although
one was also lost). Overall there are now 15 Tory Councillors, 13
Labour, 3 Lib Dem and 1 independent meaning it is a still a hung
Council with no overall control. It was a bad night for Labour
nationally but we very much bucked the trend locally and in any
other year it is very likely we would have had even greater
success.
It
is true the Tories took a greater share of the vote than Labour –
around 7.8% to be exact but that compares very unfavourably with
the national vote which showed a 21% lead. The electorate in
Hastings delivered a hung Council and that should have been
respected by building consensus through a mixed
Cabinet.
However, when it came to the selection process
for the Cabinet the Tories opted to pitch for a six member, all
Conservative Cabinet – flying in the face of the democratic result.
The subsequent vote was tied but the Mayor used her casting vote to
pass the motion. That was an outrageous use of the Mayor’s castings
vote – protocol dictates it should be used to maintain the status
quo in the instance of a tied vote (in this case a mixed Cabinet)
but the Mayor reversed this tradition for Party political
purposes.
It
may sound partisan but I really believe this was a slap in the face
for the democratic process.
It
is clear that voters have recently been expressing reservations
about what they expect of a Labour government. The problem for our
Government is that the two factors hitting peoples’ pockets – food
and fuel prices – are effectively outside any Government’s control
(it is noticeable neither the Tories nor the Lib Dems have offered
any suggestions as to how these matters should be handled
differently). It is a fact we have one of the strongest economies
in Europe with rising employment, falling unemployment and
continuing investment in health and education. Whilst the increase
in extra spending will slow down we are certainly not in a
recession. I do think people are looking for us to be bold and it’s
important that our equality and fairness agenda is perhaps more
obvious, maybe by asking those on the highest incomes to pay a
little more. We’ve also got to improve on our
PR.
For
example Gordon Brown’s delay in confirming there would be no
election last summer, the decision to go to the closing ceremony of
the Beijing Olympics but not the opening, his delay in signing the
EU Treaty and meeting the Dalai Lama at Lambeth Palace rather than
No 10 are all portrayed as important evidence of the Prime
Minister’s failings. In practice not one of those events had any
adverse effects on any one of us or our economic situation. So we
need to be always aware the hostile media will make much of nothing
if we give them the opportunity.
I
do accept, however, that we have made one notable mistake – the 10p
tax debacle.
10p
Tax Solution
Earlier this month Alistair Darling, Chancellor
of the Exchequer, announced new measures aimed at compensating the
vast majority of those who lost out as a result of the abolition of
the 10p tax rate.
It
is unfortunate given our Government’s record in alleviating poverty
and improving the lives of those on low incomes that this problem
should have arisen. The fact is every family and every individual
on less than around £50,000 per year is better off with a Labour
Government but we need still to be focused on ensuring those that
have the least are our priority and that means addressing this
mistake.
The
abolition of the 10p tax rate combined with a reduction in the
basic rate of taxation had benefited 16 million households but 5.3
million had been left worse off. In response the Chancellor
announced a £600 increase in the tax free allowance to £6035. This
means 4.2million of the losing households will see their loss 100%
compensated with the remainder seeing their loss at least
halve.
The
Original simplification proposals benefited 80% of taxpayers and
this new measure now benefits 80% of those who lost out. I am
conscious a small number of individuals could still be worse off by
£2 per week but Ministers have assured me they are working on
proposals to try and rectify this in next years
budget.
Everyone on the basic rate of tax will find an
extra £60 in their pay packet in September and an extra £10 per
month thereafter.
Constitutional Renewal
Bill
I
have recently been elected to Chair a Committee for the new
Constitutional Renewal Bill. The Committee membership of 11 MPs and
11 Lords includes Commons Members such as Sir George Young and
Martin Linton, and from the Lords academics such as Lord Norton of
Louth and former SDP Leader Lord
Maclennan.
The
cross party Committee, which does not have a Government majority,
has been asked to review the Government’s proposals on War Powers,
Demonstrations outside Parliament, the Powers of the Attorney
General and Appointment of the Judiciary. The main Purpose of the
Proposed Bill is to rebalance the relationship between Government
and Parliament.
This Bill will ensure the accountability of
Government to Parliament and I feel privileged to be Chairing this
Committee. The people of Hastings have long held me to account and
I hope I can bring this invaluable experience to bear in the
renewal of our constitutional
arrangements.
The Committee has
published a call for evidence – anyone interested in contributing
can find further details online
http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/jcdcrb.cfm
and should submit any contributions by
12th June. All submissions will be considered by the
Committee along with oral evidence taken from a wide range of
witnesses including Activists, Defence Chiefs, academics, and
former Attorney Generals
Every single person in Hastings and Rye has a
vested interest in the outcome of this Bill as it will affect the
workings of our Democracy. I would therefore urge everyone to “get
involved” and make sure they pass their views on the Bill either to
myself or directly to the Committee.
Liane Carroll collects Parliamentary
Award
To
end on a lighter note I would like to tell you about one of our
local musicians who recently collected a prestigious award. Liane
Carroll, who grew up and lives in Hastings, was named
‘Parliamentary Jazz Musician of the Year’ in the House of Commons.
The Parliamentary Jazz awards, which were hosted by Paul
Gambaccini, each year awards Jazz Musicians accolades for the work
they have done as assessed by a panel of Parliamentarians and music
experts.
Liane was not only named ‘Jazz Musician of the
Year’ but was also nominated in the ‘Jazz CD of the Year’
category.
I
was present at the awards and Hastings should be proud of
home-grown Liane. She has National and indeed international
prominence and it was great to see how popular a choice she
was.
You can see some
of the photos from the evening on my website
http://www.michaelfoster.org.uk/news?PageId=a958c473-c450-34e4-998a-dec308f2e3e7
That just about rounds off the main points I
wanted to cover. As ever there was more to say but you can see some
of my other recent ‘goings on’ at www.michaelfoster.org.uk and if
you want any further information please do not hesitate to get in
contact by emailing mp@1066.net.
Best wishes
Michael Foster DL
MP
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