Liberal View - newsletter commenting on national and local news, March 2009, by Tim Starkey prospective parliamentary candidate for Chesham and Amersham.

Written by Tim Starkey prospective parliamentary candidate for Chesham and Amersham on Tue 10th Mar 2009

THE FIGHT TO DEFEND OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES

First of all thanks to everyone who came along to our meeting on ID cards at Chesham High School: I really enjoyed the lively discussion we had.

Nowadays, politicians hold public meetings like this less and less, but I am convinced that they are an important part of democracy.

At the meeting I labelled the ID card project a colossal waste of money, calling for the money to be spent on 10 000 extra police instead. Since then, financial pressures have caused police forces up and down the country to actually CUT numbers. And still the government blithely presses ahead with ID cards!

Of course, ID cards need to be seen in the context of a much wider assault on our liberties. Just last week, we heard shocking reports that MI6 have been complicit in torture. I am proud to be a Lib Dem because of the principled stance our party has always taken in defence of civil liberties. The Lib Dems are now planning to present a "Freedom Bill" to parliament, aiming to restore the liberties we have lost under Labour. As well as scrapping ID cards the Bill will:

• Restrict the use of surveillance powers to the investigation of serious crimes, and stop councils snooping.

• Reduce the maximum period for detention without charge to 14 days.

• Strengthen Freedom of Information, by giving greater power to the Information Commissioner.

• Remove innocent people from the DNA database.

• Restore the right to protest in Parliament Square, at the heart of our democracy.

…and much much more. As Lib Dem Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne commented: "The government has presided over the slow death by a thousand cuts of our hard won British freedoms."

TOUGH CHOICES ON EDUCATION

Tough times call for tough choices. Government spending must be curbed, but at the same time failing to invest in education would be unwise. With this in mind the Lib Dems have costed their education policies, setting out honestly and fully where the money will come from. Politicians love to promise more spending, and hate to mention cuts. At a time of spiralling public debt this approach is downright irresponsible. So here are the cuts, and here is where the money saved will be spent:

CUTS

Cutting the national road building programme, scrapping DCSF quangos and cutting central administration, scrapping the Learning Skills Council, reducing government advertising, scrapping raising the school leaving age to 18, abolishing National Strategies, abolishing the Child Trust Fund, taking people on higher incomes out of Tax Credits.

EXTRA SPENDING

These cuts will free up £6.7 billion, which will fund:

• 20 hours of free childcare to every child over 18 months

• Cutting infant class sizes to 15

• Targeting extra funding towards schools taking pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds (our Pupil Premium Policy). Nearly half of kids eligible for free school meals leave school with no GCSE's. This vicious cycle of deprivation and underachievement must be broken.

• Scrapping tuition fees for full and part-time students on first degree courses, as the Lib Dems did as part of the devolved government in Scotland.

• Scrapping FE College fees.

• Adult training through new apprenticeships and college courses.

SHOULD THE TUBE RUN LATER?

For years I've experienced the frustration of a night out in London cut short by the need to make the last tube home. There's no official Lib Dem policy on this question, which is why I want to float the idea of later trains on Friday and Saturday nights. What do you think? How late should they run? E-mail me your views.

WHY WON'T GORDON ADMIT HE GOT IT WRONG?

I want to round off with some words of wisdom from the leader of our nation:

"This is an era history will record as the beginning of a new golden age for the City…The financial services sector in Britain is a great example of a highly skilled, high value added, talent driven industry that shows how we can excel in a world of global competition. Britain needs more of the (qualities of the financial sector)."

Gordon Brown, Mansion House Banquet, 21/06/2007

Debt crisis? Need for regulation? Reigning in the bonus culture? Not a mention.

Didn't have a clue, did he?