1919 A trip to Leeds for cricket and a last look at the Tory Manifesto 2010

I am in a room at the Bradford Leeds Airport Travel Lodge having watched the gut wrenching first episode of Five Daughters, a series of three interconnected dramas based on the killing of five young prostitutes in Suffolk in 2006, all of whom were also dependent on illegal drug use. I had intended to watch the second on the BBC i player and then the final live on the Television. Sometimes I cannot cope with more than one sad, tragic and sickening event, real to the parents, brothers and sisters, friends and the local community where they lived.

At the front of the Travel Lodge it is possible to see and planes taking off or landing at the airport, just across the roadway. yet from my open window at the rear of the building there is occasional sound of traffic on the main road from Leeds to Harrogate, and silence as soon as it is closed as the evening cools and dusk descends across the green farmland across a valley with not a dwelling in view.

I had no idea the location would be so good when I booked up in December to attend the Championship cricket game at the Yorkshire County ground Headingley and worked out that this was the nearest lodge at the amazing cost of £29 for the three nights.

The day went well until Yorkshire won the toss.

I decided not to set the alarm and trust that when I woke for the second time it would be around dawn between 5 and 7 am. It was just before 5 so after making myself comfortable I returned to bed and relaxed for just over half an hour before rising and completing preparations commenced the previous evening. Monday had been a solid working day in which the kitchen was given a great clean after its use for repairing and redecorating the garage and patio area, then the day room floor and surfaces, while the washing and drying was taking place. Late afternoon I called in at Azda for ‘pain au chocolate’ breakfasts and Danish pastries plus another tub of coleslaw, Milano salami and liquorice twists. At filling up the petrol tank at 118 pence a litre, a horrendous price, I called in at Morrison’s with my £5 voucher from using the supermarket petrol station and bought grapes, two melons and coffee, putting the extra on the credit card. After making up the sandwiches for the day and slicing a cucumber for picnic meals over the following three days, I enjoyed a bacon steak in a sesame seed bun. Later I was too look in the mirror and it was not the size of my tum which shocked but the double chin. I have become so different what I had always anticipated.

There was time to play a few rounds of Mahjong before packing the car and making a thermos of coffee.

I set off a little later that intended, just after eight arriving outside the cricket ground just after ten after an eventless journey in partial sunshine. I knew from previous experience it was wise to arrive between 9.30 and 10 to be sure of parking close to the ground and with relief I secured a place within a few metres of the Headingley entrance which remained a building site as the finishing touches were being put on the new Carnegie Pavilion and University teaching complex about six storeys high in a not unpleasant green and with a solar panel multi arched roof. I remain to be convinced of the building design or how it fits into the already makeshift of cricket ground after the Yorkshire members refused to move to a new ground on a Greenfield site outside the city boundaries.

Before the weekend Nicholas Clegg, or should I say David Cameron mark II, was being pressed by the media commentators to say who he would support and not support in the event of the increasingly likely unbalanced House of Commons, unbalanced because the number of seats for the Liberal democrats will not reflect the percentage of the popular vote.

He then said what everyone else had been saying that a continuing Labour Government who came last in the popular vote but held the greatest number of seats was not democratic and as a Liberal Democrat he would not support. This increased speculation that if Gordon Brown made way for someone else he might be able to do a deal but as was also pointed out the Lib Dems have been able to join with the Tories in running several councils to keep Labour out. The big issue was electoral reform and David Cameron Change Man mark I said he did support first past the post, well Turkey’s do not vote for Christmas or Thanks Giving, do they?

This led the politicians and the some media to accuse Change Man mark II of being arrogant and assuming how the public would vote. As soon as one media follows one track the rest follow like bleating sheep, unscrupulous and dishonest and living in their own curious world cut off from everyone else who on the whole is keeping their own Council until they are able to deliver what they hope is a coup de grass.

The continuation of the Lib Dem surge of over 10 percentage points is the problem. If the pollster employed by already politically committed newspapers and media organisations to the two party system of confrontational government and opposition are still admitting the Lib Dem surge than it can be assume it is greater than the figures being shown. Remember the first indication was a Twitter leak of the actual results which where they “corrected,” by increasing the number of don’t knows. All the subsequent polls admit the results are within a 5% margin of error and have between 8 to 10% undecided. This means that if the Lib Dems gained a swing of 10% to them after one broadcast they can pick up another 10% or more with the final broadcast and the last few days when it will be difficult for the Pollsters and media to sustain presenting a false position because of the discredit which will follow when the actual result is shown to be significantly different from what they are showing. No one is now likely to switch to Labour or Tories who was not previously committed and likelihood is that the hard core vote will swing to Cameron Mark II in order to punish the two main parties who they feel are responsible for our economic situation and genuine dissatisfaction with the political state. The media and the pundits got it run in the lead up to the broadcasts and therefore nothing they say since means anything until the final broadcast and people make up their minds over the weekend.

Time is also running out for my review of the Party political manifesto’s with over 150 pages to go of the Tory and Labour works of aspiration.

Starting with the Tory Change society section they mention that Carers provide some £87 billion ongoing free service, a sum twice that is immediately required to deal with the Banker’s debt. As previously mentioned the great new Tory idea is that those who are not already caring for individuals should care in the form of national and other services for everyone else. In my view this will cover for the reduction in public expenditure and which in turn will alter the balance between the public and private sector in the economy without any dramatic increase in commercial activity.
The other associated approach is to ensure that fewer people become dependent on NHS paid for drugs and care by insisting no one smokes, drinks or eats too well. This seems to me to construct the model citizen of the future as someone who will work longer and harder, use the majority of any free time in providing personal care and other good works, and stops drinking, smoking and over eating thus closing more pubs, tobacco manufacturing and junk food restaurants, reducing supermarket profits and staffing levels. It will be OK to spend more money on profit making entertainments though.

On a more serious note there is broad agreement to make doctors earn their money by providing a round the clock service and for doctors and nurses to stop killing those who enter hospital by reducing the amount of secondary infections.

The Conservative’s big idea on education is to encourage people to set up their own schools independently of local authority education departments. This might happen in a few areas where there are lots of stay at home parents whose other partner is earning sufficiently to enable them not to have to earn a living themselves. There is a plan to raise teaching standards which we all agree is a worthwhile objective but without overall increasing education expenditure will inevitably lead to larger class sizes in the short terms in order to pay existing teachers more and to attract new recruits. There is also a plan to convert soldiers into teachers and improve discipline in schools as a consequence. This sounds similar to the Hitler Youth and the Young Communist league programmes no less.

The Manifesto is full of contradictions having emphasised the need to encourage voluntarism, independence and deregulation the Tories want to improve quality against quantity and direct the teaching day into certain areas such as English, Maths Sciences and History, introducing a minimum standard reading test at the age of six. Yet if parents do not embrace the Big Society idea, who else will promote and effectively influence the young if is not primary and secondary teachers?

The Tory Party used to be party for law and order which tended to mean official covering up when things went wrong. Their main aim during the present election campaign is to show that crimes of violence have increased although the national crime figures do not bear this out, so they then resort to quoting individual examples from recent history of knife crime in particular, saying that the carrying of a knife should result in the presumption of a custodial sentence thus further removing the independence of the courts and filling up the increasingly ineffective prisons.

The contradiction is their subsequent statement of wanting to give the police greater discretion in who is charged and who is not and processing criminals more quickly by video linking to custody cells and courts. They are also suggesting that town and city centres have got worse on weekends when in fact no go areas for oldies were first created in the 1980’s, after youngsters brought back their two week annual holidays in Spain of drugs drinks and sex to the cold dark winter nights. The small amount of attention given to crime in all the manifesto’s indicates that this is not one of the key subjects in this election, except conspiracy among Members of Parliament to misuse their expenses while asking everyone else to accept cuts in their living standards.

The manifesto criticises the government’s decision to early release some prisoners because of severe overcrowding which had resulted being unable to focus on rehabilitation with the consequence that an increasing number of people re-offend within a short time of release up to over 90% from 25% in the early 1960’s, in part by filling up the prisons with drug addicts and mentally ill people. It costs over £150000 a year for a young offender to be looked after in a custodial centre and where there is no evidence that doing so prevents them from continuing to offend after they are released.

I can find very little about the creative arts in any of the manifestos but the Conservatives do praise Brighton as a creative and diverse city with 50 festivals year. Brighton is likely to send the first Green Party member to the House of Common this election which is why the traditional parties may not in fact be so keen on the creative arts, in fact.

The Conservatives will introduce a new agenda for Politics in the UK while remaining opposed to any change to the electoral system of first past the post which results in governments holding office with under fifty percent of the total votes cast and in this election under 40% as things stand. They want to take power away from the political elite yet the manifesto is full of a different set of targets and priorities so what is the point of the Tory Party or any other political party if is not to insist that its policies and programmes are put into practice by making even more laws than before? The Conservatives want to restore confidence in politics after is has been tarnished and broken, but who by? They want more transparency yet did not object to information on expenses being censored. I know I am being unfair but contemporary politics is about half truths and misrepresentations. A large number of voters are full of prejudices and bigotry but what happens t any politicians who calls it as it is?

I do like the idea of pubic hearings for the appointment of heads of advisory bodies and I am in favour of restricting their number to technical expertise and bodies which require political impartiality.

The Manifesto does admit that its last government was primarily responsible for dramatically reducing the powers of local government and centralizing power within individual authorities. I supported the idea of a City boss for London and would also support for Greater Manchester and Birmingham but I am less sure of Merseyside, Tyneside and Leeds unless it was in effect a sub regional elected controller but this would reintroduce a new tier of government in these areas. Having lost control of Newcastle the Tory plan suggests an attempt to gain power back, if it works for them in Tyneside as it has in London.

I fully support Tory proposals to cut back on the surveillance, particularly on the powers of local authorities. There is a commitment on having a free vote on repeal of the act banning Fox Hunting

In a section Strengthening the Union, The Manifesto declares that it does not oppose the proposed referendum on giving more powers to the Welsh Assembly. I support measures to also deal with the West Lothian Question. This will involve measures to ensure that only Members of Parliament for England and Wales vote on domestic matters excluding those from Scotland and Ireland.

I am puzzled by the section of the environment which appears to face in opposite directions at the same time. The document recognises the need for a greater emphasis on environmental protection but is not favour of retaining or extending enforcement measures.

The section on National defence and the role of the UK in the world supports the continuation of the Trident Missile system but supports strategic defence review which by implication means cutbacks in other areas which are not involved in combat situations. Labour has the same approach. This I suspect means the focus will be on cutting back on the navy and airforce hierarchy excluding helicopters, and also on some ships and aircraft.

The Manifesto leaves its most controversial subject until the end, Europe. On one hand Party Members remain anti European, and the Party is unable to join with other mainstream Conservatives parties such as those presently running France and Germany and instead allied itself with some curious parties some with fascist views. The basic problem is within the Party, The likely outcome is that disaffected Tories will vote for the United Kingdom Independence Party and Labour the National Front with in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland those of similar positioning will vote for the respective nationalist parties. So there is not much in the Manifesto that appeals although I admire Mr Cameron for the changes he has made and is making in those could well form the next Government although he appears to have mortgaged what he will do because of the Banker’s betrayal and what is in the Manifesto in order to retain its hard core of membership and its main financial backers.

1918 The Memo and the Manifesto, Wallander and Foyle and Durham cricket

I have enjoyed the past weekend. Disappointed with the play and result of Durham’s first game in the cricket Championship first division I had high hopes of the second game against Hampshire which commenced on Wednesday and end well after normal time on a sunlit evening at the Riverside on Saturday with the result always in question. There was one of the most engaging and memorable programmes in the second series of the original Swedish police detective Wallander and excellent end to the three film series of Foyle’s War with the hint that this is not the end despite his official retirement from the force. There was the furore about the joke memo circulating the Foreign Office about the visit to England of Pope Benedict. I completed the garage patio area in an imaginative way and continued the study of the Conservative Party 2010 Election Manifesto.

As a creative I have a Goon show sense of humour but can also laugh at tasteless jokes along with most people, although then feel guilty when I consider the implications, Although raised a Catholic and hold many of the values of a faith I no longer share I did find the circulated memo about the visit of the Pope very funny, with the suggestion that he launched the Benedict condoms, opened an abortion clinic and celebrated a mass for gay couples and spent an evening answering hotline calls from former children abused by priests. I suspect the young author of the memo is one of the bright stars of the latest generation of brilliant minds recruited to prevent politicians taken themselves too seriously and working all the possible unintended consequences of their ideas and Party prejudices, until they become statesmen and women and understand the realities of a national government in international contemporary capitalism.

I am not suggesting that the unconditional apology was not called for or that how the memo came to be circulated and leaked does not merit serious consideration. As Michael Portillo astutely commented on the Late Politics show on Friday the action of sections of the British press to resort to the politics of the gutter to try and halt the Clegg inspired Lib Dem surge was that it kept the issue on the front page when by now in the campaign finding worthwhile election stories is usually a problem. The best way to help Cameron, if this is their aim, is to down play the surge and give prominence to other issues. A reverse anti Catholic story would enable the incongruities of a visit from a recognised religious leader whose views are rejected by the majority of the population no less vehemently than those of Jewish and Muslim religions. This is not surprising considering that the Church of England was created by a murdering fornicating polygamist

The Conservatives under David Cameron claim that society is broken which begs the question of how does he define society, and irrespective of this important point, the Manifesto omits to point out that the great feature of the Thatcher rule was her denial of the existence of society in political terms and her rolling out of measures which created greater division rather than unity. It is however also fact that the extent of inequality under Labour has risen and we do have one of the highest level’s of family breakdowns and teenage single parenthood in the world. While blaming Thatcher for the fuelling personal greed and laying the foundations for greater financial inequality and power and on Blairism and Chancellor Brown for then building on her platform, family breakdown and teenage single parenthood has other causes which I suggest arises from a combination of factors built up since the 1960’s and which reversing could take as long if not longer.

The manifesto makes the point that society is not just the politicians and those who work for central and local government, I have to ask does anyone not appreciate the difference?
For me the first step is defining more clearly the limits of central and local government, including the judicial system. National and local government, including the judiciary, should keep out of moral issues as well as religious ones except for ensuring the right to follow religions as long as doing do so not impinge on the rights of other religions and those without religion, and to leave moral issues to religions and moral philosophers. Politicians and lawyers should stick to deciding what a citizen can do and cannot if they wish to benefit from the protection and privileges of being within the state. This is an important issue within the context of being a member of the EEC, for example, where one can now live in any of the participating states if one wishes without taking any interest or activity in the state, its judicial system.

However once one has made the broad distinction, less clear is the role of the apparatus of the state and what should not. It is Ok for the state to decide that it wants to promote people living together, or in close proximity in relation to the care of young people, the disabled, the sick and the elderly. There are problems and long term implications for children brought up in substitute care and which has a social as well as a financial cost, and similarly for all those where the alternative is institutional care because of mental or physical disabilities and because of old age which often embraces both. However this is not to pass a moral judgement that people who live together, as part of extended families and provide care in the community, are morally better than those who do not.

My concerns are that once the state starts making moral judgements it is a short road to accepting that one political or religious ideology is superior to others and therefore everything which the state does should be governed by one and not any other.

My concern is also that because the life of politicians and governments are comparatively short they should not embark on tackling social problems where solutions are long term unless there is genuine political consensus.

Take the issue of good parenting and child care, my professional and managerial experience is that many children are damaged in the sense of adversely affecting their adults live whether they are brought up by one, both or neither biological parents and where one or both parents or substitute parents not only have good intentions but always try and to the right things in the right circumstances. The state therefore should only intervene with the child if there is evidence of the carers causing immediate harm and provide help and support. Once there is acceptable evidence for formal intervention then any intervention should apply to carer as well as to the cared.

I do support measures which will make people feel more in control of their lives than many do at the moment but the priority remains of good education and paid occupational activity, access to shelter unaffordable energy, clothing, food and some leisure as well as freedom from murder, physical and other forms of violence, and theft.

As I previously stated I am not convinced that most people want to be involved in politics and running services for others or trying to dictate how the majority should live. The Manifesto argues that there should be a transfer back of power from central to local government and then to individual communities. Yet the opposite of this occurred under Thatcher and was then further exploited by Labour with financial politicians and their officers becomes more skilled but just as ruthless as Stalin‘s Commissars. The reality of the contemporary society is that if you want to set and enforce minimum standards and widen choice and opportunity you have to centrally direct and then ensure what you want is put into practice and maintained by an effective system of local monitoring, inspection and evaluation. Otherwise the Con in Conservatism stands for confidence and not for conservation and protection for all that is good and valuable to the welfare of human kind.

You cannot legislate or provide short life measures to make individuals more responsible and appreciative. This change will only come about through better parenting and education and a leadership from politicians that is not based on personal greed and hypocrisy, the feature of the last and previous decades of government.

One proposal for a national Citizen service is pointless. When I hear people argue for national service they mean compulsory nationals service to address juvenile crime and yob culture but the very youngsters covered their concerns will not participate in conventional activities willingly and those likely to be interested in the scheme are already in involved in Scouts and Guides, voluntary organisations, the Prince’s Trust the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. Others are already committed as carers or raising large sums for charities through fun runs, fun events village fetes, school bring and buy sales and such like.

I was pleased to see the commitment to retaining the fringe benefits for the elderly something which past Tory politicians have argue strongly against. Mr Cameron added free eye sight tests and passports to this list during the second Leader’s debate. It is proposed re-examine Family Law to enable greater use of mediation which lawyers representing couples in divorce proceedings cannot presently engage in and to enable grand parents and partners to have contact with children of marriages and partnerships if a permanent separation occurs.

I was also very pleased by a section on Protecting childhood which included greater controls on advertising and marketing aimed at children. There is concern at the proposed refocusing of the Sure Start programme which has been a proved benefit to young children and their families. Obviously more needs to be done to protecting children in situations where the patents and other relatives are feckless, anti social and dysfunctional and where there is need at time to in effect take the whole family into care on a voluntary basis. My first experience of social work was with the Family Service Unit and a year later I spent a short period of weeks working at a residential centre where a group of families occupied flatlets provided by a non statutory body. The provision of skilled intervention and support as well as coordination of statutory services requires a considerable investment of time and money over a prolonged period if some progress is made.

Before turning to the NHS and education and the sections on crime. I want to reflecting further on the Wallander episode 5 of the original second series of new stories called The Cellist. As a young man I purchased a large printed canvas of a Jacqueline Du Pre type of young girl playing the Cello sometime after hearing the Elgar Piano Concerto which she made famous in the 1960’s and which is admired to this day. Her interesting but short and tragic life is subject of the film Hilary and Jackie. I therefore immediately became engaged with the episode which features a young cellist who is nearly assassinated after a concert attend by Wallander. He discovers that she is the key witness to the murder of a conductor friend and lover who in turn we find smuggled drugs for the Russian Mafia and had a bisexual relationship with the son of the mafia boss. The motive for the killing is revenge because the young conductor is believed to have infected the son with HIV and which at the time the story first appeared was expected to lead to AIDS and premature death.

In addition to some beautiful music the episode is excellent because of the relationships developed during the investigation, the level of tension and menace created by the gang and the final exciting climax although the outcome was never in much doubt although the writers usually manager a twist or two.

This reminds that I enjoyed the second String final in the 2010 Young Musician of the year and where the young trombonist brass band player winner of the 2009 contest has recently been in the recording studio as the soloist with a full orchestra for a major label. In the instrument section final there were two outstanding young performers, a harp player who demonstrated that is already an artist performer and whose intensity was impressive to watch as well as to hear. I suspect she was narrowly beaten by an outstanding young violinist Callum Smart who is the front runner so far as none of woodwind players, including the winner appeared to me to approach his X factor performance. We are unrelated.

The third and final two hour film in the series of Foyle’s War was the best of the three to date although aspects of the story were predictable. The programme begins with the retirement of Foyle and on his way to the USA after securing a place on a transatlantic liner. He appeared to be going on some mission which I hope will be revealed in a future series. It was not made clear why he became interested in the situation of a young British ex prisoner of war who was found to have been a member of the a Nazi propaganda force drawn from British POW‘s in the latter stages of the war. He admitted to the treasonable offence punishable by death, refusing to say anything in his defence to his appointed lawyer or to Foyle who takes an interest as part of a study of the unit, although why he is so interested is not made clear. We learn the learn that the boy is the child of the first marriage of a former High Tory politician who is a member of an ancient English family.

There are two developments which turn his interest into a major investigation. The first his the murder of the secretary to the former Member of Parliament who lives in area now covered by his former Sergeant, and then the circumstances of the departure of the subject’s former music teacher, who died in prison following a conviction for theft of jewels from his mother whop then died in a horrible and alleged tragic accident.

Despite the continuing resistance of the young man to defend himself and who is duly sentenced to death for the treason, Foyle uncovers that in fact he was an undercover agent sent to disrupt the Nazi unit and report on its activities. The murder was committed by another POW who joined the unit to get better conditions and who needed to silence the girl who knew of the role of the young man whose POW letters she passed onto intelligence. On reading of the arrest of young man for treason come he came forward pretending to be the agent who had passed on information via the girl friend who he then murders to ensure there was no one who could reveal the truth. Before finding this out Foyle had taken an interest in the conviction and imprisonment of the former music teacher and discovers that although the musician had been of previously excellent character he had been sent to prison by a judge who was a friend of the former Member of Parliament.

The news of the death of the former girlfriend and the role of the POW who stole his actual identity, provoked the sentenced young man to reveal what had happened in the past and what happened when he became an undercover member of the Nazi unit. They had been sent on a propaganda visit to Dresden on the night the city was reduced to rubble with tens of thousands of deaths which had broken his heart and conviction in the rightness of the war. He had felt no inclination to defend himself, especially when he realised that his disgrace would deeply wound his father who as a child he had witnesses killing his after she decided she could not longer stand his cruelty anymore and said she was leaving, the catalyst being that her friend, the music teacher, had been farmed by her husband and sent to prison.

As light relief Sam continued to help out at the Hastings guest house which had the skids put under it by the bank manger who instead of giving a further overdraft called the existing debt in. The situation suddenly looked brighter when the Council advised it was going to build housing and a shopping centre on the ancient green next to the guest house which would have to be demolished for a new road. Instead of saying Eureka the guest house owner sets up as a protest group which discovers the green an ancient burial ground and that ends the Council’s steam rolling ambitions. He proposes marriage and Sam accepts and then the guest house blows up from an unexploded bomb. Foyle is be back from his mysterious trip in time for the wedding. The young man is discharged with his conviction quashed in time to attend the trial of his father for murdering his mother.

The disappointment of Durham’s first match in the championship reverberated around the Member’s lounge on another cold start to the second game against Hampshire on Wednesday morning. I became so irritated by the voices of doom that I drew attention that had Durham held catches and dismissed the two openers, he rest only managed one hundred and fifty runs, it could have been Durham in the driving seat on the final day.

My forecast that a poor game did not turn Durham overnight the top side into a no hope side appeared a little thin as Hampshire batted with ease after a defensive start and the runs commenced to mount up. The weather turned glorious and I basked in hot afternoon sunshine getting an early sun tan bordering on sub burn.

It looked as if Hants would fail to reach 300 but then a sparkling slog by the 9th man took the total to just under 350. Durham had a mixture of an innings but managed to gain a modest first innings lead of some 40 runs. Hampshire again demonstrated that the team this year is of stronger stuff and held out until early afternoon on the fourth day, with Durham facing a total of 260 runs to win at a rate of just under five runs an over.

The total was achieved with only and handful of overs to go and with five wickets in hand. In fairness the result remained uncertain until the last hour and could have been achieved earlier if a couple of the big hitters had not tried one too many slogging strokes. I am impressed by young former Academy player Ben Stokes, an all rounder who reminds of a confident young Paul Collingwood. Luke Evans on loan to Northants for April has participated in both their opening winning games but Sussex are the immediate leaders with 3 out of 3 in division two. For the game with Hampshire another Academy fast bowlers was standing by, Master Rushworth, who was to get his opportunity on Sunday in the first of the new 40 overs single innings game which Durham won impressively scoring over 260 runs and then dismissing Hampshire for just over 100 in quick time. Not that I saw Sunday’s game, deciding to stay and finish the outside and commence preparations for next week’s trip to Headingley.

1917 Dave for PM and the Conservative Manifesto part 1

It is said that a week in politics is a long time and by Sunday morning April 27th 2010, Nickolas Clegg was raising the stakes suggesting that the Labour and Tory Parties would change their leaders if their parties performed badly on May 6th General Election and his minimum consideration for holding talks to sustain one of the other parties in political power was the four main points of his programme on the changes to income tax, on the size of classes, on including the Trident nuclear missile system within the Defence review and on changing the political structure, making the point that given what has happened no party could continue to support the first past the post system. Alec Salmond for the Scottish Nationalists put in his pennyworth with a strong case, along with the Welsh Nationalists, for being involved in someway in the final TV debate. The later Sky Debate on Sunday involving the Scottish first Minister confirmed my hunch that a four way debate would move people further away from Labour and the Conservatives into the Liberal Democrat camp.

Along the way, on the Andrew Marr Show, the former Fleet Street executives and their paymasters had their already grubby paws squashed firmly in the dung they are famed for dishing out, as at last, the one sided and heavily biased political power of the press was smashed, and hopefully this will alter their position in the future. I confidently predict that unless Cameron or even more unlikely Brown, can turn the tide back from the Liberal Democrats to them, they are yesterday’s political men, although as I shall argue there is still the good possibility that Dave Cameron will be the next British Prime Minister, given that Dave is really a Liberal Democrat at heart and he is flexible in his approach to policies as well as to gaining power. Those who wanted another 40’s something, clean cut, middle of the road man to lead Labour, viz the South Shields Member of Parliament, David Miliband, were proved right in the event, although he was right not throw his hat into the ring earlier and Gordon has been doing an excellent job in the TV debates despite the low poll rating so far.

The problem for Brown, although to a less extent Cameron, is that a significant proportion of the British Electorate are saying they want change. The second televised debate in which the Leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democratic Parties attempted to persuade the uncommitted voters to make them the next Prime Minister, confirmed that a substantial proportion do not trust David Cameron or Prime Minister Gordon Brown to provide the change they want, and are prepared for a new Parliament in which no political party has overall control.

On the basis that the present voting intentions are reflected in the final outcome on May 6th and 7th, there could be a situation where either the Labour or Conservative parties have about 275 seats with the other 250 and Liberal Democrats 90 to 100 with other parties having 40- 50. We could see the first Green Party Member a UKIP candidate successful, perhaps even a National Front although the focus of the media on the three main parties, and on the Lib Dems as a focus for the protest vote could neutralise any swing to the political extremes.

The unknown question is the impact of all this on Scotland and Wales, and the how the situation in Northern Ireland will work out. In Northern Ireland I can foresee the unionist swinging to their right against the decentralization of the police and justice system and which traditionally favours the Conservatives. It should be evident that not only the nationalist voting public in Scotland and Wales will be angry at the media attention to-date being on the three English parties and the first debate between these parties and the Scottish nationalists on Sunday morning should be a good guide, although nothing is certain or can be taken for granted.
The media and political commentators have become over excited with John Snow becoming unacceptably aggressive towards Liberal Democrat Home Affair’s man Huhne on the morning of the potentially slanderous assaults by the Telegraph and Mail against Mr Clegg in their overnight editions and an almost hysterical sounding and gleeful Kay Burley announcing that Cameron had won the debate in a dodgy after debate poll conducted for Sky in which less than half the viewers tuned in as they had to the ITV. Burley could not hide her delight or perhaps it was just excitement at the development which in fairness to Sky they put into perspective as three or was it four other polls gave the debate to Mr Clegg and put Cameron on the same level as the Prime Minister in two.

This was a more accurate reflection of the actual debate on the night. Mr Clegg performed as well as he had on the first occasion and delivered some telling political punches, but Mr Cameron and the Prime Minister more than held their ground without managing to deliver political wounding hits as the opinion polls have already revealed. Given the extent to which some voters are undecided and the nature of the first past the post system with no transferring votes which I prefer to voting lists and percentage vote allocations, the share of the final vote is likely to be around 30-35% for one Party with two others closely behind, and a seat allocation along the lines I suggested earlier. Under proportional representation the Liberal Democrat would triple the number of presently held seats based on their current polling share.

The unknown is whether the Conservatives will end the day having the largest number of seats. The Labour and Tory Parties spent the previous week, supported by the Tory press, denouncing the idea of a result where no Party had a overall majority for the life of the next Parliament. Kenneth Clark in particular launched an irresponsible scare saying that if this happened there would be a panic in the markets which would lead to the external Monetary Fund coming in and dictating the situation as they now have for Greece. He was quickly shown to be talking nonsense as the leaders in financial markets explained.

The result of the Mail, Telegraph and Express hysteria and the political briefings and statements is that the public have stuck up one or two digits according to preference and I suspect come voting day, especially in the marginal seats quiet a few former hard core Labour and Tory supporters will vote for someone else not necessarily Lib Dem, to send a message that they are not having it.

Of course there is also an attempt to focus on the manifesto’s and political ideologies on which the three main parties are based. I have been reading the Conservative Manifesto over the past few days and will reveal my prejudices shortly. The present reality is that for a large chunk of the population they vote not on policies and promises but on their gut feelings. One previously voting Tory woman said she liked the look of Clegg but not the Cameron lip. There are those who are racists and anti Europe who hate the fact that none of the parties want to withdraw from the EEC or stop the right of the citizens to travel and work freely, although there is more talk of imposing transitional arrangements should Turkey be admitted or if there are to other new admissions. The Lib Dems, cleverly, would hold an in or out referendum in such a situation, knowing it would force Labour and Conservatives parties to support the stay in vote despite having strong numbers within the parties who would want full withdrawal.

There are also those who want to see a national government or at least an end to political debate and disagreement. These people cannot cope with democracy or with politicians doing what they do not like. They are not just those who want capital punishment and birching of criminals, taking away state benefits from convicted criminals and fraudsters, the non involvement of the British armed forces in combat and non involvement of the UK in International politics and Aid, or the major reduction in taxation and public service provision, but also those who have no interest in politics and just want to lead their lives without politicians and officialdom interfering. They will not vote and probably never have. I find it irritating that when the media undertakes interviews it does not clarify the background or starting position of each speaker. There is social value in allowing extremists their voice because by doing so there is less likelihood they will resort to violent action. Nor am I in favour of peaceful direct action which interferes or harms the welfare of anyone directly not involved and even then the circumstances for its use have to be exceptional with all other methods having failed and those participating understand and accept the likely consequences of their actions.

It should not be assumed that the forecast split voting between three parties means that should the Conservatives become the party with the largest number of seats in the House of Commons they would find themselves struggling to get any decision through Parliament because the Labour and Liberals would vote against them. A Conservative and Liberal Democrat pact is just as possible as one between Labour and Liberal Democrats.

In the Late Politics show on Thursday Night, Michael Portillo reminded that in Victorian England the Conservatives did a deal with the Liberal Party against the Whigs over electoral reform and which kept them in office or enabled them to gain office. He suggested that if the offer of introducing proportional representation in time for the next general election was made and accepted by the Lib Dems the Conservatives would accept the longer term implication of a three way split between the main parties with Lib Dems gaining substantial seats at the next General Election at the expense of the both Conservative and Labour Candidates. It also has to be said that traditionally the Conservatives have been in favour of reducing personal taxation, so some reform with a compromise over the amounts could also be on the table. The stumbling block ought to be the Tory insistence of a like for like replacement of the Trident Submarine Missile system, but here again I suspect Cameron might be prepared to include the nuclear deterrent as part of a comprehensive review of our need for ships, planes and the military in over next 10 to 25 years and to increasing the basic pay and provision of support services for those who engage in combat and their families when they are home and when they leave the service to their country. The stumbling block is more likely the proposed immediate savage cuts on public sector pay, conditions of service and jobs. Although Clegg did not emphasis this aspect when he talked to Andrew Marr on Monday.

Whatever promises made about protection of services and benefits and suggesting the money can be found from waste, those making the claims know that once in office the way to do the opposite is to say having looked at the books and in view of the international position x and Y have become essential to go ahead or to be stopped. However even with the Liberal Dem surge and the improving performance of Mr Brown and Labour the likelihood remains that Mr Cameron will get his wish and become Britain’s next Prime Minister

So given the prospect of a Tory minority government I ask the same questions I asked of Nick Clegg who is David Cameron and of the Conservative Manifesto. I also ask how different is he from Nick Clegg or Nick Clegg from Dave Cameron, as Mr Cameron likes to be called in private? The answer is not only they are the same, but had circumstances be a little different Mr Cameron could be leading the Liberal Democratic Party, in fact some true blue Tories say he already is, and Mr Clegg could be leading the Tories, and both saying what they are saying about each other from the opposite position.

Mr Cameron has a true blue background of wealth and aristocracy, a direct descendent of King William IV and his mistress the Irish actress and courtesan Dorothea Jordan. His father’s background is Scottish, born at a school built by his great great grandfather, and in International Banking and stock broking. His mother is the daughter of a Baronet.

David similarly to Nick Clegg and like me went to a Preparatory School, although his was attended by Prince Andrew and Prince Edward, after which he went to Eton and Oxford. Eton is the most famous independent school in the world. Eighteen British Prime Minister’s went to Eton, Prince William and Prince Harry, the Jazz trumpeter Humphrey Lyttleton, Henry Moore, George Orwell and Guy Burgess, and thus outdoes Westminster School.

Similar to Nick Clegg, Dave narrowly missed being expelled, in his instance for a drugs misuse offence. Mr Clegg burnt the Cactus Collection of a Professor.

Unlike Clegg, Cameron went immediately into politics working for his God father, Tim Rathbone, as a researcher, and who was the Conservative MP of Lewes in Sussex. He then had experience for a further three months in an minor administrative position in a Hong Kong based shipping office. An attempt was made to recruit him as an information provider by the KGB while on a visit to Russia.

He was described as being one of the ablest of students by the Liberal Democrat Professor Bogdanor in the study of the PPE, Politics, Philosophy and Economics, the same degree I would have originally gone for during my first year at Ruskin College had my interests not changed to Psychology and then to Social Work. Like Clegg his sporting interest was Tennis but he is best known for his membership of the infamous dining society the Bullingdon Club, along with Boris Johnson, the present Mayor of London.

After Oxford when he obtained a First Class degree he immediately went into the Conservative Party Office (1988), despite a phone call from Buckingham Palace saying that although every effort had been made to dissuade him from politics, he was a remarkable young man. Nick Clegg, it will be recalled, impressed his Conservative European Commissioner boss Leon Britain who tried to recruit him to the Tory Party. In 1991 he worked at Number 10 preparing briefs for John Major at Prime Minister’s Question Time and was then appointed head of the Party’s political section of the Research Department and part of the young strategy team for the 1992 General Election, and experience which nearly led to Cameron moving from politics to journalism.

His style of campaigning was criticised by the sections of the Tory establishment but on the Party winning the election when Kinnock had been expected to do so from Labour he was appointed as a special adviser to the Chancellor of Exchequer Norman Lamont and was with him at the time of Black Wednesday. After the disaster of Black Wednesday and the sacking of the Minister, David was recruited by future Party Leader Michael Howard, then Home Secretary. In 1994 Cameron left political employment for the post of Director of Corporate Affairs at Carlton Communication after it had won the franchise for ITV London weekends. He left in 2001 while remaining a consultant to stand for a seat in the House of Commons. He had been selected for Stafford in 1994 losing to Labour and was not selected for Kensington and Chelsea after the death of Alan Clark. He was appointed to Witney after Shaun Woodard moved to Labour, He won the seat for the Conservatives with a small swing of 1.9%.

After the election he served on the Home Affairs Committee where he is reported to have adopted a radical approach on the issue of how to prevent illegal drug use, He and George Osborn were invited to help the new Leader Ian Duncan Smith prepare for PMQ’s. In 2003 he was appointed Shadow Minister in the Privy Council Office to the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons. He became a Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party under Michael Howard and Local Government spokesman in 2004 and then head of Policy Coordination for the Shadow Cabinet and then Shadow Education secretary. He was a non executive Director of PLC who ran the Tiger Tiger Bar Chain during a three year period to 2005.

Following the election defeat and resignation of Michael Howard as Leader he became a leadership candidate supported by Boris Johnson, George Osborne, Michael Ancram and Oliver Letwin. He only came second in the first ballot between four candidates despite his great success at the Tory Party Conference, speaking without notes, compared to a lack of success of David Davies who had been the front runner.

As with Nicholas Clegg, Mr Cameron has therefore never held a ministerial office, although unlike Mr Clegg he has worked for one Prime Minister and one Chancellor of the Exchequer when in Government. Both men have broadly similar backgrounds and both were one time possible recruits for each other’s Political Party. Since becoming leader Mr Cameron has in fact been branded as a Liberal by right winger Peter Hitchins, as a Tony Blair clone and as a hollow Easter egg without a bag of sweets inside. Norman Tebbit has accused him of being like Pol Pot in purging the Party of Thatcherism.

Mr Cameron was born in 1966 and is therefore only a year older that Nick Clegg. Dave is married to the daughter of a Baronet and a Viscountess and they had three children, the eldest was born disabled with cerebral palsy and died in 2009 before his 7th birthday. His wife is presently pregnant. It is the life and death of his first born son that changed public perception of Mr Cameron as a man who despite the most advantages of backgrounds nevertheless had been through an experience which changes how you view life, relationships and social issues. While his background his one of political opportunism, media projection and style, there always appears to have been a very serious politician with clear views and values. You do not get a First at Oxford without hard work and ability, however you spend your social life outside of study.

My main point is that there is in fact a great similarity between Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg and each could in fact have become leader of the Party which now poses the biggest threat to either becoming Prime Minister. In my view the issues is therefore not the personalities and experience or leadership style of the two men, but their policies and in this respect Mr Cameron has the weaker position because he is weighed down by Thatcherism and the Tory ideology on the merits of international deregulated capitalism against the alleged bureaucracy public services. However how far his present utterances are matters of personal belief or political expediency in a General Election and special economic situation remains to be seen. Two years ago he was trumpeting that he would keep the existing level of overall government expenditure on the public services while cutting back on waste, over regulation and form filling and such like. Now he appears not just to have changed his tune with a vengeance but appears to want to follow the reported Canadian experience which successfully cut the public sector by one third to re-engage the economy to fit the development of international capitalism. This may be the appropriate way to re-establish the Britain as a strong economy within the latest developments of International capitalism, but is it the way the majority of the British people now want to go, or do we want to settle for not creating vast wealth for a minority, and creating a fairer and less aggressive player on the world stage?

However to be fair the most significant thing to emerge from the second Leader’s debate was Mr Cameron’s commitment to keep all the fringe benefits available to the elderly, including free eye tests, passport and such like, although he did not add for any elderly person regardless of means.

The Manifesto is sub titled Join the Government of Britain and in its collective strength of the Big Society. This can appear as an open challenge to Thaterism where Lady Thatcher did not believe in any form of state collective action, in the political concept of society or in state intervention through public funded social work and social casework. As a member of the Association of Directors of Social Services I was privy to the results of an attempt to enlist the support of Mrs Thatcher as a Tory Minister having been invited to an annual dinner of the Association. She was then clear in her views, as she remained throughout her subsequent premiership. She was in favour of traditional voluntarism, particularly that organised by the churches and established voluntary organisation but not state funded social service provision and benefits except for those with proven special needs. My question to Mr Cameron before reading the manifesto pledges is to ask if his emphasis on everyone joining in is a genuine commitment to equal opportunity involvement and decentralised government, or a way of filling the gaps in welfare state provision caused by dramatic reductions in to the total expenditure on the public services, including as proposed by the Liberals Democrats the severe cutting back on inspection and quality control monitoring.
The Manifesto begins with the economy and eight benchmarks which like being against sin and for virtue is meaningless without specific targets and measures.

My main criticism of the Tory party proposals is what appears as an obsession to bring the borrowing deficit back to where they would like it to be within one Parliament. Why? Is this to change the balance between the public and the private UK in a more ruthless way that they would not be able to get away with in other situations? Under the section on economic stability the Party promises that within 50 days of taking office it would have an emergency budget. Gordon Brown advised Tony Blair not to alter the Tory spending proposals when they took office until they were able to inspect the books at close quarters and get to grips with the nature of the inherited national administration and the state of local government. This was a wise decision which laid the foundation for the subsequent development of services and costed legislative changes

The Conservative proposal is to cut a further £6 billion from public expenditure in the current year on top of existing measures already in hand by the Labour Government. Such an immediate cut will involve ruthless and arbitrary reductions which will result in service chaos and substantial job loss. Anyone who suggest otherwise is a fool or a liar. Those behind such claims are usually men who work as advisers and bureaucrats at the highest level. I met them throughout my senior managerial experience over two decades. They had power and often commanded the highest of salaries. They were always wrong. These are the men who advised on deregulation of the banks and finance industry or that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Men who did not know that children in care were being abused or that hospitals killed patients because of a lack of cleanliness and basic care. I will one day attempt to list the many examples I encountered during my managerial experience, insisting on changes which made things worse or intended to help the majority but which in fact harmed more people than helped.

The question needs to be asked how ruthless will you be if the savings you hope in terms of alleged do not materialize?

The freeze on public sector pay for one year, and on filling vacancies will also lead to industrial action. The public, the innocent will therefore suffer yet again for the failure and mistakes of the rich and the powerful who are carrying on as they always have

I am not against a cap on public sector pensions over £50000 if the same applies to the private sector.

I regard the general anti public sector approach of the document as irresponsible although I recognise that there are various structural issues, aging population, loss of manufacturing to other countries that means we may not be able to sustain the same level of public services. There is a price to be paid for deregulation. These proposal alone not only make me opposed but fearsome should the Party form the next Government. Mr Cameron appeared to give the game away his interview with Mr Paxman on Friday evening when he drew attention to the significant imbalance between the public and private sector in Northern Ireland and the North East, areas where he said he that special attention would be focussed. This was immediately interpreted by Mr Paxman and by other commentators as saying these were the areas where public sector cuts would be harshest. The following morning the Party backtracked saying Mr Cameron did not mean picking on these areas for cut but for special measure to increase business enterprise. It is also significant that he did not mention Wales which has the same highest balance at Northern Ireland, or in Scotland which gets a disproportion amount of public funding to the North East.

There is a commitment to maintain existing Defence expenditure for 2010/2011 until the result of the strategic defence review but excludes the Trident replacement which the Tories are committed as a symbolic gesture of British defiance to the rest of the world and to appease the American who will provide the system.

No one will quarrel with the emphasis on research for business development as long as this is not at the expense of pure scientific investigation which often has led to far reaching discoveries on the emphasis upon further exploitation of the digital revolution and on further encouragement of the study of the sciences in schools and universities

I support the raising of inheritance tax to £1 million given the way house prices have escalated in some parts of the country.

I am concerned at the extent of unemployment among young people and the number of people of working age who are totally dependent on state benefits at any one time. The numbers were too high before the recession and masked by the increase of those in full time higher education and other social measures. This is where the important of people from the rest of Europe prepared to work longer, as self employed or casual workers for minimum wages has had its impact. The are cultural problems which have led to the creation of young underclass which cuts across racial and religious backgrounds.

I like the three Conservative proposals to get people back into work when they become unemployed. The first is the provision of casework for those with serious barriers to get another job and at six months for those under 25 years of age. The intention is that the programme should be delivered by the private and non statutory sector, which is in effect a switch from one form of public paid work to another, but using commercial agencies which in practice costs more. However such bodies are likely to be more effective insecurity positions within the private sector, and this follows nicely on the proposal to extend the concept of internships with a Leisure and hospitality academy offering 50000 places. At present the children of wealthy and connected parents are able to gain places in law, accountancy and other similar private bodies, political parties included by not just work for free for a time but paying a premium to the firm or body for the costs of providing on the job train training and supervision. This means that when paid post become available and are advertised, usually asking for practical experiences as well as appropriate experience, the internal becomes a front runner because in addition to meeting the criteria, their worth is already known to the organisation. The Tory idea of extending this to those registered for employment is an excellent which I hope will be taken up whoever from the next government. It is also fair enough to say join in the best programme for you or you will not be entitled to benefits for the following three years. However the emphasis has to be on good assessment ensuring those with mental health problems are not driven into homeless on the streets or petty crime.

I also have not objection against insisting that a quarter of government research and procurement contracts through small business enterprises by cutting the costs of bidding. I also approve the ideas behind the work for yourself programme with putting unemployed in touch with business mentors and substantial loans.

The Conservative Party also has a good approach to widening the availability of university and further education to ensure that it is not restricted to those parents who can support financially or have the confidence to take on loans. However there is no plan to abolish University Tuition fees which even if it has to be an aspiration because of the immediate economic situation, should be agreed. All three of the main political parties accept that because manufacturing can take place in the developing countries, especially China and India at a significant discount on costs to that in Britain and the West, it is a process which cannot be reversed. There is also recognition that the development of jobs involving high levels of skill and training will need strong government support and subsidy if these are to be created on a large scale and have some prospect of competing against other countries in similar situations.

The Conservatives do plan a reduction in corporation tax and the small company rate to 25 and 20 pence in the £1 respectively. While the lower rate for genuine small businesses might be supported that for the large business is not. The Party also appears to be encouraging the further selling of British owned businesses and land and buildings by more foreign investment whereas I would like to see significantly less and a restriction on the ability to buy profitable companies such as Cadbury’s, to make greater profits by then shifting production to other countries.

As with the Lib Dems and as I understand the Labour Party, the Conservative Party wants to now introduce tighter controls on all forms of immigration and in principle I have no objection to any of the proposals if they can be seen to work. It is important not to make a bad situation worse. It is evident that some areas of the UK the indigenous population has been overwhelmed and the level of change ought to have been prevented and earlier action taken. The Labour Party stands condemned for not introducing transitory arrangements for the increasing in nationalities joining the EEC during their period of office and for failing to insist that all those intending to become permanent residents agreed to learn the English language and accepted basics of the British constitutions and British value system. There needs to be tighter controls on those entering the country for marriage, as part of families and as students. Those coming from outside the EEC for holidays or on business need to be monitored by registering places of stay and confirmation they have departed. Employers using seasonal, part time and self employed should be required to demonstrate they have attempted to recruit from the UK before recruiting from abroad. While sympathetic to the Lib Dem proposal to regularise the position of those who are here illegally, once this has been offered then there should be greater emphasis on detection and repatriation unless there is evidence that to do would put the lives and safety of those involved at serious risk.

The Manifesto is upfront in expressing the opposition to several geographic area having greater than a fifty percent dependency on public finance for their economic survival. Notably Northern Ireland at 69%, Wales, Scotland, the North East and the North West. The Tory party propose a two stage development of High Speed rail links to London and Heathrow, first to Birmingham Manchester and Leeds and then to North East, Wales and Scotland. I agree to the overall proposal but not the staging because of the risk that the first part would be created and not the second and which in any event would further disadvantage Scotland, the North East and Wales in the short term. For me it must be all or nothing with the contracts and building timetable table agreed at the same time.

I like the idea of the fair fuel stabilizer and while there is an argument for keeping petrol prices high, there is a stronger case for protecting those living in rural communities by the development of buses and coaching services. The focus has to be on alternatives to bad emissions engines. I would like to see a differential pricing system so that those travelling by plane on business, for education and training or to visit relatives will pay less than those going on holiday although I appreciate there could be a problem for our holiday tourist trade in relation to those travelling here from afar. I want to see a reduction in the cheap flights to Paris, Italy, Spain, and Greece and other European destinations by making it cheaper to travel by Train, Ferry and Euro Tunnel.

I also support anything which helps Britain become the hub for hi tech, digital and creative industries on a UK wide basis and not just London and the South East, bearing in mind that the rest of Europe will have similar aspirations.

I like the idea of making Local Government the heart of economic recovery although this does square with the proposed assault on public sector direct employees. I have less objection if under any new as well as existing contracting out of services there is in built preference given to small local businesses and cooperative ventures involving existing groups of employees.

The Manifesto makes several attacks on the public sector from a range of perspectives and the next alleges that public sector productivity has fallen under Labour. I am not clear how and who measured this, especially if source is independent and compared like for like allowing for change factors and whether this is a snap average covering the whole of the two administrations, say first thirteen year periods. It is in this section that the Manifesto reflects my view that employees should be given greater opportunity to create cooperatives organised by their trade unions to bid for contracts. I also support a payment by results approach for local authority managers although there will need to be a careful look at delegated authorities and benchmarks and also bonus payments to include all the work force involved in service delivery. Similarly I am in favour of applying good financial management across central and local government departments but this also means department heads having access and training in financial controls and information and central financial directors not attempting to hold all the controls and information systems and where the same standards and reward system should also apply.

On banks there is no proposal to divide the banking system between traditional services and speculation and trading and to create more smaller banks. However I accept that the Labour monitoring and control system failed and alternatives should be tried. It is essential that the great bonus culture is radically changed and this does not mean converting cash to shares and other benefits in kind with free private education, private health. service, holidays and expensive gifts of other kinds

On measures to reduce carbon gases from our environment there is a lot of fine words to which few will take exception but Labour and Liberal Dem programmes appear stronger and more wholehearted.

I will report on the major sections on changing society and changing politics and on environmental protection separately.

1916 James Lovelock wins the day

The magical wonder of Tuesday was a BBCi Player programme about James Lovelock, the man who invented a device to detect and measure CFC’s and with his family then undertook measurements when there was haze blocking the view he had as a child and this led to making a trip top the Antarctic to discover the extent of CFC’s in the world. His work led to others understanding the impact on the Ozone layer in the earth’s atmosphere and the international understanding that they had to eliminate CFC’s if humans are to be able to continue to live on this planet.

An invitation to assist US Space Exploration Scientists led him to develop his Gaia theory about the way living organisms have helped to protect the earth from the increasing heat of sun. The Space agency assembled the best minds to try and work out how to evaluate if there was life on Mars. James independently worked how to make the evaluation without going to Mars and his idea established that there was no life now. It was the study of the Martian atmosphere which led to develop his theory that through the process of natural selection living organism were creating and changing the atmosphere around the earth planet which sustained and developed human life. His ideas were immediately appreciated by some Christian leaders and New Age believers but met with considerable hostility on the part of the scientific establishment until he was able to demonstrate with the Daisy experiment that an organism can respond and adjust to the environment and in turn affect and which together with other examples substantially changed the view among scientists and others that one needs to looks at the planet as whole to full understand the interconnectivity and how revolutionary imbalances can cause irreversible changes such as the melting of the polar ice caps

In the first of three programmes about individualist creative scientists who have made profound discoveries James, who is ninety years of age explained how he became interested in sciences, discovered original scientific books in the basement of Balham public Library and decided to work on his own rather than within the institutions and laboratories of the scientific establishment. He remains one of the remarkable human beings of the generation before mine. His life and work confirmed our understanding that overall Creatives contribute more to society than those who follow conventional ways. However one as to be aware and take account of the potential downside.

The weather this weekend was most foul. Cold and wet but I did undertake work on the garage area under cover. Having repaired and sealed the brickwork above the garage door I completed the painting, pastel pink the brickwork, brilliant white the woodwork and pastel blue the door. I also commenced work on the side of the house which was further progressed on Monday, first cleaning off any fungus, then treating the areas with preventative and repairing and sealing, with the conditions unpleasant to work despite being undercover. Tuesday was also cold but brighter although rain during the day delayed work on the lower day room window. I was nearly able to complete the original task. What remains will take one half day session. In addition I propose to decorate the remaining area of garage floor with coloured side bands, more coloured gravel with a query on the remaining floor area. I will also do some work on the external toilet as well as on the bathroom which is in fact my next priority.

Having spent time on careful preparations and then on obtaining a good finish, at close inspection, as well as from a distance, I would rather leave and return than rush and regret.

I have photographs of working outside my former home three stories high, using a hired mobile scaffolding platform and then using my own self assembly unit which I purchased mail order and which had to tied to the property for safety reasons. I don’t like heights, avoiding standing at the edge of cliffs and building and getting up and working and then down again was one oft he achievements of my life as well as walking climbing a mountain in Scotland but which did involve some hands and knees sections. Nowadays getting up six and nine step ladders is something of an ordeal and requires care and I will be relieved when this part is over.

I had planed to spend the from Wednesday to Sunday at the cricket with the first 40 over game on Sunday, and as last week I will attend the opening day of game against Somerset, although going early to ensure a seat behind glass, unless it is raining hard and the start of play will be delayed. Durham must win the next game not to find themselves at the relegation end of the table with Yorkshire now some 40 ahead after two magnificent wins. Rain and bad light helped Durham to achieve a draw on Sunday when for most of the third day and morning of the fourth defeat seemed likely. My hope is the Will Smith does not go to pieces following the poor decision to field and his second innings duck. I was a little concerned about his admission that last year he had lacked the mental strength to undertake the captaincy and build long innings.

I enjoyed some TV football watching and listening over the last three days. The best game was Wigan at Arsenal where the away team scored three goals in ten minutes at the end of the game to win and the three points has secured their position in the Premiership while Arsenal’s feint hope of the Premier title vanished. Sunderland had a comfortable win against Burnley taking them to 13th and keeping Burnley the next favourite team to be relegated with Portsmouth already down, and Hull, who escaped last year, more likely than West Ham, who suffered defeat on Monday against Liverpool. Sunderland are at Hull on Saturday There are now only two teams with a chance of the fourth Champions League place next season, Spurs are in the driving seat and Man City. Spurs has bounced back after the brilliant Portsmouth win against them in the FA Cup semi final, while Man City lost against Manchester United at home by a last second goal, and which left United just one point behind Chelsea. Newcastle had a workmanlike win at Plymouth in a match shown on Sky and became the Champions with matches to spare. The trophy will be presented at their home tie with Roy Keane’s Ipswich on Saturday and when a will give them 101 points.

The most enjoyable occasion was the China Grand Prix which was won in an eventful rain affected run by Jenson Button, with Lewis Hamilton second. The outcome is that Jensen now heads the driver’s championship as Malaren the Constructors. The next should be in Spain with question marks over the problem of cancel flights, but with Madrid airport now clear the teams should be there by now en route to the Cataluña track.

I missed the start of Dr Who which has become a programme just for young people again with a peculiar performance as Churchill in wartime paving the way for the return of brightly coloured Daleks. I will peak in again if I have nothing else to do but it is no longer planned viewing. In contrast the second in the latest Foyle’s War series was exceptional if not sad with the subject of racism of the worst kind on the part of USAF military station in Britain which included corruption by a sergeant and murder by a major. Sam has settled herself in as the cook, housekeeper and bottle washing at the Hastings small hotel for the young man owner she met in London and who was shot by the assassin used on the attempt to kill Foyle and her. Staying at the hotel are three residents, the singe mother thrown out by her family because her child is from a relationship with a black serviceman who is also a jazz musician and who wants to her to marry and live with him in Harlem where he expects to be playing at the Cotton Club. She, is threatened by the sergeant who then helps to frame her fiancée for her murder, committed by the Major after she yielded to his advances to support their application to marry and for a visa, and she overheard his involvement in the planned robbery of the wages delivery. The complication in working out who had dun it was the former boyfriend of the girl, a professional boxer with promise who had become a conscience objector and face local prejudice as well as disappointment when the girl refused to place the child for adoption and marry him. In a touching finale he agreed to look after the baby girl until her father gained his discharge and could return for her. The second complication with the man and the young woman also staying at the hotel, who turned out to be a couple and behind the robbery of local business men they believed had profited from the war. The young man had lost an arm and experienced much horror in North Africa and he had been blackmailed into carryout the payroll robbery. There were several moving moments and the who murdered the girl remained a mystery until it was revealed. The only weak link was the willingness of the girl to yield to the pressure of Major.

On Tuesday night I decided to take a peek at Oceans 12 the middle of three capers with, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Daemon, Catherine Zeta Jones and Julia Roberts. This follows in a long line of sophisticated heist films where the criminals use technology and technique rob banks and the ultra rich and have a significantly higher quality of life that the international police. The films are gloss, absurd, immoral and fun if you have nothing better to do and nothing more engaging is available, but one should not spend additional money to see such nonsense at the cinema theatre.

I enjoyed my food which was makeshift given the decision not to attend he cricket. I overeat of course and have not weighed myself for a couple of weeks knowing what I will find. There was some fish, chicken wings one day and chicken breast wrapped in bacon on another plus curry, with bananas or rice pudding. I did not fancy the available strawberries. The grapes are thick skinned, small and not sweet and melons I like twice the price I usually pay.

My belief that the Liberal Democrats will sustain their recent surge in the polls and extend further it is going well. As predicted the agents for the Labour and Tories plus the media have turned on Mr Clegg and his party to find a weakness which will turn away the floating voter to them. Most of what they are doing is counterproductive and will be evident to the voters who watch the broadcasts. The more they attack the more the public will turn on them.

The BBC are holding debates between the front bench Ministers and Shadow Ministers of the Government and two major opposition parties. David Clark did well on Foreign Affairs but former Tory leader William Hague’s deputy did badly with the Lib Dems effectively answering everything. Similarly the Home Secretary and the Mr Huhne squeezed the Tories into third on Home Affairs. Labour sensing it might need the Lib Dems to continue in Government appears to make overtures to work together to keep the Tories, at a distance, while understandably the Tories are emphasising that a Lib Dem vote could keep Mr Brown in power, as a means to keep some of their traditional voters from switching. Mr Clegg sensing he is on a band wagon is stressing a plague on both your houses and so far, despite the efforts of the parties and the media, the public keep listening and supporting. I expect to se another surge of up to five points after the debate on Thursday, making him the poll leader and then further surge after the surge up to polling day. He could become the first Liberal Prime Minister for 100 years.

1915 Mr Nicholas Clegg and the Liberal Democrat Manifesto

The man, Nick Clegg, and his Party, the Liberal Democrats have already had a decisive impact on the on the 2010 General Election. So who is the man and what does his political Party stand for. Is the accusation of both David Cameron and Prime Minister Gordon Brown that although he won the first Leader’s debate on style there was no substance or that any substance was at best idealistic but also dangerous

Nick Clegg certainly has style and an amazing personal background, Age43, born 7th January, he is married to a beautiful Spanish daughter of a former member of the Spanish Senate‘s Popular Party. She is a leading lawyer, an expert in European Trade Law and they have three children, Antonio, Alberto, and Miguel, brought up Catholics by their mother, with Nick a declared agnostic.

Nicholas William Peter Clegg was born in Chalfont St Giles with a half Russian, half English father who was a banker and a trustee and former chairman of the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation. His great grandfather was a Russian nobleman and Attorney General of Imperial Russia and his great aunt the writer Baroness Moura Budberg.

His Dutch mother Hermance van den Wall Bake was a teacher of children with special educational needs who had been interned as a girl with her family by the Japanese in Batavia) Jakarta in the Dutch East Indies. Nick was brought up bilingually in Dutch and English and also speaks French, German and Spanish.

Educated at Caldicott, a minor Preparatory school, among whose alumni is the England cricket Andrew Strauss. Nick went to the Westminster School, one of the most outstanding private (public) schools in the UK which a host of distinguished former pupils including six holders of the Victoria Cross. As a 16 year old exchange student in Munich, he and a German friend burned a collection of cacti belonging to a Professor and let to a sentence of community service.

He attended Robinson College Cambridge reading Archaeology and Anthropology having a gap year as a Ski Instructor in Austria and as an office Junior in a Helsinki bank. He is reported according to Wikipedia to have been active in student theatre, the college tennis team captain and a campaigner for the survival of indigenous people. It has been claimed that he was also a member of the University Conservative Association although he claims he has no recollection of this. He spent a year at the University of Minnesota writing about the Deep Green Movement which seems to be a mixture of radical environmentalism and anarcho-primitivism- a socio political concept (My art work is anarcho primitivism). He worked in New York for a left wing magazine and then to Brussels for the G24 coordination unit. He then took a second Master’s degree at the University of Europe in Bruges where he met his future wife.

The winner of the Financial Times David Thomas Prize, he went to Hungry writing about mass privatisation of industries in the former communist bloc. He then worked for European Commission for two years with a role on providing aid to central Asia and Russia and then worked for Trade Commissioner Leon Britain as a policy adviser and speech writer and headed an EC team negotiating on and Russian accession talks to the World Trade Organisation.

Nick therefore makes no pretence of having a common background or being a common man. This is suggested will spell more of a problem for David Cameron whose Eton, Oxbridge, Bullingdon boy background is anathema to the working class and democrats whereas Nick’s background will be regarded as interesting rather than patrician.

In 1999 he was selected as the lead European candidate for the Liberal Democrats and was tipped as a future leading politician by Paddy Ashdown. He was elected the first Liberal Politician at Parliamentary level since 1931 in the East Midlands. He converted a Conservative MEP to Liberal Party and supported his candidature to replace him in the European Parliament when he decided to switch to Westminster. Before departure he worked closely with the Greens and with others on broad environmental legislation and co founded a campaign for reform of the EEC, including on Expenses. However his expenses record at Westminster is questionable where it is said he claimed the maximums possible but was only required to repay a small sum of £80 in relation to some international phone calls.

Leaving his MEP post he took up consultancy work with the E.C and then a part time post at Sheffield University in politics where he was adopted as the Lib Dem candidate for Sheffield Hallam. Immediately on winning the seat he became Liberal Spokesman on Europe. A year later he was in the frame as replacement Party Leader for Charles Kennedy but supported the winner Sir Menzies Campbell and became the Home Affairs spokesman proposing a Freedom Bill following the hardening of the government’s approach to civil liberties because of the terrorist threat. Since becoming leader he has campaigned on civil liberties, environmental protection and devolution of power, especially within the public services.

Winning the leadership content in 2007 following the forced retirement of Sir Menzies, his championing of the role of the cross party popular Vincent Cable and asking his rival Chris Huhne to become front bench spokesman on home affairs created a formidable team which could now form the basis of a Liberal momentum if the surge became a political Tsunami which is not beyond all possibility because of anger at the expenses scandal and the speculators and bankers, fear of higher taxes, wages freezes and cuts in public services and wanting revenge on the Labour and Conservatives politicians who have held power since World War II.

Certainly such a movement would mark a dramatic change in British political life. Over the past three years the electoral fortunes of the Liberal Democrats have been mixed with some gains but also losses and despite one poll in 2008 local government elections placing his party above Labour they have remained third with 19 to 20%, thus retaining their sixty seats although in terms of votes they would obtain over 100 under proportional representation. No one including me, or I believe Mr Clegg and his party, anticipated the impact of his appearance in the first three leader TV show. The British tend to be Conservative in their political attitudes, going for the safe middle ground so a jump of 10 points from their recent average is extraordinary.

The approach of the Labour and Conservative political machines will be to claim that the Liberal manifesto is full of unrealistic ideals, only put forward to win votes but where the Party knows it will not be required to implement.
I anticipate that faced with policies which appeal to the public in addition to having the most human and likeable personality of the three main Party leaders, the back room spinners and black ops men will draw attention to the Catholicism, the pro Europeanism and the agnosticism, on the basis that there are strong anti Catholic, anti European and pro Christian feelings among large sections of the voting public.

Similarly having a non English wife and mixed nationality background will be mentioned in such a way to imply a lack of patriotism, something we have seen already with the Liberal Democrat commitment not to renew the Trident missile system and Sunday‘s Daily Mail. Politics can be ruthless and dirty and faced with an unexpected defeat the Tory dark side will now come to the fore.

It will be more problematic for the Labour Party who presently can expect the Lib Dem poll surge to adversely affect the Tory Party more than Labour, however should the surge develop momentum then Labour could begin to fear melt down. The main use of playing on prejudices will come from the extreme right although the Conservatives will hope to also be the beneficiaries of any fall away of the Lib Dem Momentum.

Having planned to begin with a close at the Conservative Manifesto this week before that of the Government, I will instead cover the 2010 Manifesto of the Liberal Democratic party. But first a political health warning. The idea that the bulk of the British electorate reads the manifestos and this makes a difference to the final result is not borne out by past facts. People go for change in the narrow sense of liking or disliking someone. They are also in a mood for revenge on the Labour and Conservative Parties

The headline address of Mr Clegg argues it is time for something different and something better. This is my first question mark. Do we need something fundamental different to the basic British political system which ran an Empire and since World War II has enabled the UK to punch significantly above its weight in International affairs and developing and maintaining a leading economy despite the dramatic changes in manufacturing production worldwide with the loss of shipbuilding and coal excavation and the radical reduction in steel production. We have achieved this remarkable repositioning by embracing capitalism, making London a centre for money, with strong governments, and a solid a political civil service.

This is not say that major changes are not needed. There is need to create a more democratic second chamber predominantly elected but allowing for direct appointments to bring in key people and specialists into government and opposition. There is also considerable value in having so called cross benchers, those here to make a contribution to the national welfare rather than to represent a political party. A second chamber cannot just be the mirror of the first but a place with less emphasis on the party politics and more on knowledge, expertise, experience and the broad national interest.

I would go further than eliminating hereditary peerage from the House of Lords, and abolish those who wish to maintain their titles from holding any form of public funded office. Similarly it is time to abolish the Orders of British Empire and other outdate awards for simply doing a job well over a long period, but I remain in favour of recognising service and exceptional effort.

I would also love to break down the international capitalist system which effectively has controlled British governments since the first Thatcher administration but on this I am not a unilateralist, and there would have to be a world wide movement among the major economic powers if the UK is not quickly TO slide from our position of comparative wealth into a dependent poor relation with mass unemployment which would only lead to increasing crime and corruption and further inroads to civil privileges. I am therefore in favour of change, but it has to be evolutionary, carefully considered, planned, and its implementation closely monitored and evaluated.

Everyone would like to do better, the main objective of the Liberal Democratic Party but one does not want geographic lotteries by breaking down attempts to set standards, levels and access to services and in opportunities across the UK, and in England in particular, id Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales want to set their own, ensuring these do not fall below a certain level and attempting to raise them for everyone. This is more of an art than a science where the need for some uniformity has to be balanced with flexibility to meet individual circumstances, and the need for openness and accurate reporting has to be balanced with avoiding excessive form filling and negative bureaucracies.

The Tory party and tended to veer towards dangerous deregulation and the Labour Party excessive control and monitory so a Liberal Democratic balance could be a good thing.

The nature of government in the complex interacting and interdependent planet earth world of today is such that. There will always be mistake and decisions, policies, and legislation which does not work out as intended, because of individual and local variations in practice, changed circumstances and new knowledge.

The core accusation against the Labour Administration is that it has allowed the richer to increase their wealth at a faster rate than general improvements in living standards for the rest of us and failed to impact on the underclass, despite concentrating on services for pre-school children, widening higher education, major improvements in aspects of the national health service and introducing a range of support measures for the elderly in general and older sick and disabled as well as attempt to remove children from living in poverty. However all politicians who seeking instant solutions and results within the electoral time table have failed to address the long term deep rooted issues such as petty crime, addictions, single teenage pregnancies, and disrespect for those in positions of authority which require the concentration of disproportionate resources over prolonged periods. The public behaviour of politicians and those holding public office, tax avoidance, excessive remunerations in cash and kind have contributed to this situation which continues to manifest itself in various forms from bullying at school and work, violence and terrorism associated with some sports, primarily football, a knife and gun culture on some housing estates and areas. The white middle and upper class male supported slavery, was strongly anti feminist, racists, anti child care and ignorant and at times perverted on sexual matters, all of which tends to have an increasing negative social impact down the social order and has become particularly obnoxious among white trash although no politician would use such a term without being specific

The Liberal Manifesto concentrates on four main proposals during the life of a first Lib Dem administration. The first appeals to the financial pockets of the majority. A change in the way income tax presently operates would remove substantially more people than usual from paying any income tax and most people would pay £700 less a year. The lost revenue to be replaced by direct action to stop the rich avoiding their taxation duties. This is excellent basic socialism discarded by the Labour Party when it comprehensively embraced international capitalism in 1997. The question is could a Liberal administration deliver on such a redistribution or would it be a case of giving with one hand while taking in another, involving damaging cuts in existing services or increases in VAT?

The second core proposal is to cut class sizes, especially in low performance schools and to give more freedom to schools. In my experience these are two incompatible objectives. The only way to ensure minimum standards while encouraging good performance is through standard setting, inspections and close monitoring and penalties for failures. Good standards are more related to good teachers and this is about the quality of selection and training, public respects and recognition. If you dismantle the controls and monitoring and delegate too much power locally you will see a widening gulf in standards, including an increase in those misusing position, fraud and corruption. Everyone should learn from the deregulation of banking.

Under a Fair future there are proposals to break up the banks, which gets my vote as well as concentrating on investment in green growth and jobs. In relation to honesty about tough choices needed to cut the deficit I say amen, except that everything should be done to make those who caused the problem to pay most. Labour has failed in this respect and it is difficult to take Tory proposals seriously.

The final area is the clean up of politics giving public in a constituency the right to sack their Member of Parliament in specific circumstances. Good. A Freedom Bill to protect long establish civil privileges. I am cautious about using the word Rights but the development of digital technology and surveillance has enabled significant misuses and untended controls which have undermined valued social privileges.

I am also cautious when politicians talk about party values and moral issues because it is difficulty to apply them when in government, Take the concept of fairness. To be fair to someone or some group usually means unfairness to someone else or group, One cannot be fair without being unfair.

I have argued throughout most of my adult life that there are five issues upon which all governments should be judge in an order of my preferences and priority which I appreciate others will not share. The first is national security. Everything should be done to prevent citizens being attacked going about their daily lives whether by other governments, or individual home or externally based. I have not problem with governments matching and exceeding the tactics, methods and intelligence of those posing actual threats and this includes the provision of appropriate military and other defence services. War is bloody and democratic governments have a duty to be even bloodier back although always aware that the means can become the end and that if you use methods blow previously acceptable standards you increasing become more like your enemy. Included in this priority is stopping home grown terrorism whether bullying in schools, youth gang crime on estates and manslaughter through dangerous driving

Secondly and thirdly, it is the responsibility of all governments to give priority to the provision of adequate food and shelter. I am concerned about our increasing dependence on other nations for food and energy and our failure to ensure that everyone has accommodation above the minimum level.

Fourthly, everyone should have the opportunity to provide for themselves rather than be dependent on the state. However I not in favour of slave labour in any of its forms.

The fifth is best described as freedom to, rather than freedom from. The ability of everyone to have the opportunity to live as they would like as long as this does not adversely affect the ability of anyone else to do so similarly.

I am not democratic or a socialist in the sense of everyone being and having the same as everyone else or everyone being involved in the organisation and running of the societies in which I live. You can decide things and run things for me as long as I can do my thing my way.

Now the details of the Liberal Democratic Party 100 page document. I make no attempt to summary or provide a comprehensive or balance view. I state what I like and what I don’t and what interests me
Under the section - Your money I agree it is wrong that the poorest fifth, pay a greater proportion of their income in tax than the richest fifth when the emphasis should be the other way round. This is being unfair to the rich, I want to be unfair to the rich.

I also agree that if air travel is the worst cause of air pollution it should be taxed greater than other forms of travel until the balance can be achieved offsetting any pollution.

I am also in favour of restoring the link between pensions and earnings in terms of annual increases because usually those on fixed incomes find that their increases does not match the increase in inflation.

I am concerned about people having to sell homes they have mortgaged to buy to pay for care and the same applies for those who have worked hard to develop business which employ people using their own capital having to be sold to cover death duties.

In the short term the rich must pay a greater proportion of their capital and income to achieve a greater balancing of national income and national expenditure including national debt. I do not accept that this approach will automatically discourage business and other initiatives but this is a factor which requires proper examination to avoid the Lord giveth with one hand and taketh with the other.

I like proposal of a mansion tax at values over £2million, There is a small industry working out how to offset all tax evasion and avoidance measures which needs to be stopped. However there has to be renewed confidence that taxes are well used in the interests of the majority. I do not to understand why the proposal to limit non domiciled tax to after seven years. Why not three or one?

The Manifesto explains that that the Party has identified £15 billions of reductions of which an additional expenditure of £5 billion is to be used on new developments. This leaves about £30 billion to be found from 2011 2012

Nine immediate political decisions are listen to achieve the £15billion which includes a ceiling on public sector pay rises. However this is unacceptable to me without a similar ceiling on the private sector for to do otherwise is unfair making those working in the public sector second class citizens. Similarly the statement cutting back on burdensome regulations of local authorities should not mean any reduction in inspection, monitoring or minimum standard setting.

I am fully in favour of the proposal to stop like for like replacement of Trident at an estimated saving of £100 billion. This is important beyond financial savings.

I am concerned about proposals for yet another attack on the pension scheme for public sector workers, although I am favour of an equalizing scheme which would bring public sector pay and pensions on the same footing as those in the private sector, like for like. I like the idea of extending the Winter Fuel payments to all severely disabled people of adult age offset by raising the age limit to 65 except for those 60-65 who are recipients of the Pension credit. This is been mistakenly interpreted at restricting the payment to only those on Pension Credit above 65.

I also like the proposals the proposals to give priority to creating and sustaining jobs in a green based economy. It is natural to distrust Conservative intentions to reform and control the banking system and to point out the failure of the Labour administration to date, in part because it and any government need to maintain the British financial system and standing which is such a vital part of our economy. The Labour emphasis on demanding an international approach is understandable to a point but there is a risk that it is a cop out in confronting those who lead the banks in the UK. Sometimes a unilateral approach gives others the confidence to follow.

The Lib Dem proposal is to create 100000 additional carbon neutral jobs at a cost of £3.1billion . £400 million is to refurbish shipyards in North England and Scotland to build off shore wind turbines and other renewable marine equipment is very interesting. There are also proposals to bring 250000 empty properties into use with energy friendly renovation grants if the home is for social use and for education establishments to become more energy efficient, plus £140 million for replacing old high pollution buses with new accessible low carbon ones.

I am also impressed with the proposal to develop Cooperatives, Mutuals and other Social Enterprises with legislation to bring the law up to-date, to turn Northern Rock back to a Building Society and to provide a future for the Royal Mail and the Post office. One other proposal which attracted was the protection of Government advisers from inappropriate political pressure.

There are also proposals to create work placement and apprenticeship schemes. There is also a raft of proposals to assist businesses but also ensuring they business meets its environmental and social duties, and makes them public through the annual reporting system. I have no means to evaluate a number of the proposals and it will be interesting to learn the reaction of both small and large businesses.

Proposals related to working conditions are unlikely to be supported by employers because of their emphasis on extending protection, fairness, flexibility and non discriminations, I like the requirement for all remunerations to the value of £200000 to be published in full, and hopefully this should include benefits in kind.

The section your life includes the proposal already mentioned in relation to class sizes and a raft of other measures all of which sound good but many are difficult to impossible for government policy or action to achieve such as the improvement of discipline in schools and more action in relation to bullying. These are problems arising from the hardening of the underclass, the understandable but regrettable changes in public attitudes towards those in authority who have found too many men, a few women to be made of straw.

I am interested in the proposal for a fully independent Educational Standards Authority to overseas standards inspections and examinations systems and replace existing bodies including Offsted. Sounds good but my experience is that completely new things often take longer than anticipated to begin to be effective and rarely better than what when on before if they rely too much on the same staff and do not have a new specialist, well trained and hand picked leadership management team.

Similarly there are some good sound proposals to encourage and enhance the best schools and the best teachers to ensure they keep going, which from my experience is not the primary issue for them, as in any activity. The problem is to help the less successful to improve and sustain the average on whom the service for everyone is dependent. This does mean good management and leadership within schools.
I will highlight a proposal to deal with the issue of tuition fees for first time degrees and abolish them over a period of six years, scrapping hose for the final year of a first degree. I also like the proposal to create a more flexible National Bursary scheme. The immediate job creation proposals in relation to of the job costs of adult apprenticeships and additional Foundation Degree courses is also welcome.

I also welcome radical proposals to reduce the size of the Department of Health, to abolish Strategic Health Authorities and bring the salary structure to more realistic levels.

I an fully behind the proposal for full integration of health and social care for adults. I also fully behind the proposal to create all party approach to establishing a long tern plan for the care of the elderly as long as the emphasis is on care in the community. The proposal to give greater support to careers and to give individuals and their carers greater control over budgets and care solution is also commendable. There are also good moves to further improve relationships, choices, roles and services provided by General Practitioners

The is good attention towards government involvement in sports and leisure where it is anticipated there will major reduction, especially after the 2012 Olympics.

In relation to the family the main emphasise is on the immediate change to income tax with maintaining the present level of child care. I also liked giving parents the option of how they use maternity and paternity leave between them. support arrangements with the long term intention of providing every child over 18 months with 20 hours a week of free child care. The party also shares with other Parties support for various measures to end child poverty in the UK, support international agreement of the rights of children, on reducing child maltreatment, including detention of children for emigration purposes. I also like the proposal to make it a right for both parents to have the actual care of a child if there is no threat to the safety of a child.

There are no immediate major changes to the position of the elderly other than the application of the new income tax scheme and the link between pensions and national increases in average earnings. I have question marks about the retention of the free TV licneces for over 75‘s the national cocnessary travel scheme and the Winter Fuel allowances which are all vulnerable when the government of the day face up to reducing the national debt.

An important proposal is to make energy supplies that the first band of energy use is always the chepest. Also the fixing of a maximum interest rates on credit and store cards. They also plan a reduction in rail fares and require airlines to be honest about the actual cost of the fares charged. There is a commitment to regulate car parking and stop private sector wheel clamping. They will end testing household products on animals although this falls short of those would like to see an end of the use of aniamls in the testing for any products and purposes other than in finding new solutions to improve theri welfare.

The Party rejects a new generation of nuclear power stations about which I have an open mid. The party gives priority to working with the EU to develop international agreements to deal with the adverse effects of climate change.

There appears to been a down play of the Lib Dem approach in matters of International relations other than on meeting the effects of clinmate change. My personal view is the UK should only get involvd with other nations to protect and further its domestic and trading relationships.

The proposal to add another 3000 police officers on the beat sounds good but the police need to be targeted towards prevention and detection of crimes more than addressing the fear of crime. I like the idea of direct election of police authorities and the stop on request of night buses along their routes. On penal matters the proposals to move drug addicts and mentally ill criminals into more appropriate secure accommodation and reduce short term imprisonment are also welcome I have an open mind about restorartive justice measures. I have always felt the the maxim - the punishment should fit the crime is a partial truth, There is need for for better screening of convicted people to ensure they get the right sentence. Some need to be locked up and away from the rest of society for as long as possible, with some indefinitely, and need close monitoring if released. Others should not be sent to some forms of contemporary imprisonment unless there are the resources for the provision of education, training and effective prepration for release and after care.

I support the Liberal Dem approach to immigration issues with the need for an effective National Force who provide effective exit as well as entry controls. I like the idea of an indepednent agency for dealing with asylum applications. In my view the proposal to increase the number of branch lines and local services is better than putting funds into high speed links unless there is funding to do both. The development of local tram and metro systems such as in Croydon, Nottingham and Tyne and Wear should be extended. I like the proposal to restrict the growth of aviation and the present halt on flights because of the Iceland Volcano eruptiosn could be a blessing in disguise. The expansion of British Airports should be postponed and the cheap package holiday flights should be discouraged. There are excellent measures in relation to use of the countryside, water management and I noted the proposal to stop new property building in major flood risk areas. The proposal to put obstacles on the purchase of second homes in rural communities is good. I would like to see a British Governments to fight harder to protect British agriculture and fishing for with an increasing population we need to ensure we are not dependent on non British sources for food and energy.

In my view The English in particular have become quite content with letting those who wish to do to run democracy by standing for election and participating in party political system, as long as they can do their thing their way and those who do the job act responsible and maintain the same standards and laws they require the rest of us to follow. They are not all frustrated at their lack of individual involvement until doing things their way is affected in some adverse way.

The main constitutional change proposed by the Lib Dems is the introduction of proportional representation which some commentators and pollsters claim would lead no Political party having a majority of seats and to frequent changes of government because of the inability to get legislation through Parliament. I am not sure that this would be bad thing even if such a situation were to develop. The objections are in fact misguided and borne of the two main parties who feared this would lead to the Liberal Democrats gaining seats to reflect the votes cast for them nationally. I supported the proposal of the rime Minister to move to a system which ensure that every elected member of the House of Commons commanded over 50% of those voting. I am also in favour of fixed term Parliaments and a written constitution although this might take more than one Parliament to reach agreement. I am particularly in favour of extended Freedom of information to Private companies delivering monopoly public services such as British Rail. I have reservations about lowering the voting age to sixteen in general although I would immediately extend to those joining the armed and emergency public services.

Having said that I do not feel strongly about being given more power to run things or having more of a direct through referendums and such like I am fully in favour of elected boards for the NHS and Police service. I am totally opposed to the scrapping of Government inspection units on local authorities. I also like the concept of a Freedom Bill and wait to see the details. I remain in favour of identity cards.

The Liberal Democratic Manifesto also sets out the projected costs and savings of their programme.

I am struck by how little I disagree with compared to what I agree with. I have not yet read the Labour or Conservative Manifesto’s