An Open Letter to my Councillor
I emailed the Fib Dems the other day, complaining at the rubbish they had thrown through my letter box. Councillor Jeff Reid responded with this terse, rather pissy email:
Dear Mr Hutton.
I am sorry that you feel badly about the Lid Dems. (Lid is Jeff’s spelling, not mine. I spell it FIB) If you would care to be more precise about your accusations I am happy to try and explain our position. If you feel you cannot, then if you give me your postal address I shall try and make sure we do not deliver any more of our literature to you.
Regards Jeff Reid
Here’s my response:
"Jeff, people voted for the Fib Dems because they said they would:
- Scrap tuition fees. But they trebled them.
- Oppose a rise in VAT. But they voted to back the Tories in raising it to 20%.
- Protect the NHS. But they backed David Cameron’s expensive bureaucratic plans which put the founding principles of the heath service at risk.
On a local level, I received a scurrilous document the other day, which I contacted you about. You kindly offered to ensure that I do not receive this communication again, but I decline your offer.
Only by reading your words can I effectively oppose your machinations. As representatives of the people, you ought to be transparent, and this means delivering your words even to people who see through the deceit and then criticize you.
I wasn't complaining that I got the photocopied propaganda; I was complaining that I did not get a chance to debate the issues on my doorstep. Please continue to inform me of events in your little fantasy world. I particularly liked the untrue statement:
“The Liberal Democrats’ have been in government for just over a year but we have already implemented much of our manifesto. This sheet details some of the key policies we have delivered so far. It is not exhaustive, nor does it include those of our policies that are in the coalition agreement but have not yet been implemented - so this list is just the first part of a long line of Lib Dem policies to come.”
I will address 10 of these spurious claims and hope you engage in the debate.
- “We are creating 150,000 new affordable homes over the next 4 years - the first net increase in social housing in 30 years.”
The reality is that no new affordable homes have been built yet, and any building in the future is likely to break the old planning regulations which now been scrapped by your bosses the tories.
- “We have put forward proposals to get prisoners working and contributing financially to their victims.”
These are only proposals, but the worrying thing is, Ingeus is involved in this process and the scheme is likely to reduce the real jobs available to ordinary people by treating prisoners as a kind of slave army of workers. I do not believe the Fib Dems invited Ingeus into the Work Programme.
- “We have introduced proposals for Neighbourhood Justice Panels to give people a say in sentencing for petty crime and anti-social behaviour.”
These are only proposals, the reality is that your tory masters sent a memo round the courts to deal incredibly harshly with the ‘rioting’ disaffected citizens who were protesting in the only way they felt they could. Where were the Neighbourhood Justice Panels when this draconian memo was composed?
- “We have launched a new equalities strategy which will improve the recording of and response to hate crime.”
Do you have evidence that this has been implemented yet? The reality is that Police forces with some of the worst records of targeting black people have decided to stop recording the ethnicity of the people their officers stop and ask to account for their movements. I don’t hear the Fib Dems protesting about this.
Five out of the 10 forces most likely to use stop-and-account powers disproportionately against black people have halted recording the race of people they have stopped. They have used a government change in the rules introduced in March, which was aimed at cutting bureaucracy. In total, 21 out of 43 forces in England and Wales
- “We have introduced a Local Sustainable Transport Fund to encourage local authorities to develop low carbon transport networks, such as improved cycling facilities.”
This is either ignoring or claiming the credit for the good work and the advances that SUSTRANS have made in the region, I can’t decide which.
- “We have scrapped the compulsory retirement age.”
Perfect, combined with the ruination of the pension schemes and the withdrawal of benefits from terminally ill residents, it is now your plan for us to work until we die. How is this something to be proud of?
- “We have increased the income tax threshold by £1000, lifting 880,000 low earners out of tax. The threshold will increase in each year of the coalition, eventually lifting 3 million people out of tax altogether.”
Pie in the sky!! Has this actually happened yet? Instead of pushing the Robin Hood tax, the Fib Dems are complicit with their tory masters in reducing the contribution made by the banks and the rich.
- We are investing £900 million in a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion.
Meanwhile MPs who stole expenses money and handed the loot back, have had their ill gotten gains returned to them in a secret deal.
- “We have restored the earnings link with state pensions and guaranteed that pensions will rise by at least 2.5% every year.”
Meanwhile more than two million public sector pension holders will be forced pay £1.1bn in extra contributions from April 2012, under government plans, increasing their contributions in varying amounts up to a whopping 10.9%.
- “We are reforming the banking system and have introduced a bank levy that will raise £2.5 billion every year.”
Meanwhile the Independent Commission on Banking says "fundamental and far-reaching" changes will be fully implemented by 2019. Whoopee!
That’s enough for now, I look forward to your response."
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