<td align="left" > Today is the anniversary of the birth of one of my favourite authors Brendan Behan. I first came across his work when at university, a friend gave me a copy of Borstal Boy, and a few weeks later I went to see a student production of The Hostage. Both works are incredibly individual and I would urge anyone reading this to read both and if you get a chance to see the latter or indeed his other play The Quare Fellow. The Hostage was written in Gaelic and Behan himself translated it into English.  It shows the detention, in a teeming Dublin house of ill repute, of a craftless cockney British conscript seized by the IRA as a hostage pending the scheduled execution in Belfast of an unseen IRA volunteer. The hostage falls in love with the maid who promises not to forget him.  In the end, the hostage dies accidentally during a bungled Gardai raid, shot by the police. The main themes of the play are innocence and power, the arbitrary nature of authority, and the human cost of war. The NHS is facing a £63bn bill for PFI hospitals which are only worth a fraction of that. The NHS still owes £58bn on more than a hundred PFI contracts over the next three decades, and will have to pay back more than £7bn in PFI payments over the next Parliament alone (2010-2015). This is the disastrous reality of Labour’s managemant of the NHS.  We’re in one of the most difficult financial periods in the NHS’s history and this Government’s legacy will be a mountain of debt.  Despite the huge sums of money we owe for these hospitals, many will never end up in public hands.  Hospitals all over the country are mortgaged to the hilt and there are serious concerns that these repayments will lead to cuts in vital services. We need a new approach to public services in this country.  By setting up an infrastructure bank we Lib Dems will ensure that key projects get access to the funding they need to revitalise our economy. We Lib Dems will change how the NHS works so that patients come first and money goes further. I've just had an e-mail asking why I was calling the US conservatives dim? Well if you look closely at the woman in the picture's jacket she has the web address of their campaign. All well and good you say, but the poor sap has misspelt it. If you can't get something so minor right, how can folk have any faith on anything else you claim to stand for? My opposition to our own Tories, as well as being fundamental and philosophical, is evidence based. On every major decision, the economy, the war on Iraq, the family, taxation, students and education (the list is endless) they've called it wrong. Last week hundreds of reactionaries met in Nashville to show their displeasure at the "socialist" [sic] Obama administration the "cult of multi-culturalism", "Islamification", and large numbers of immigrants who did not want to be Americans. The solution is "Education, Education, Education". Just look at the back of that woman's jacket.  We're as angry as hell and we just can't spell! In this week's Economist there are two powerful pieces, and that well and truly scotch the Tories' dangerously seductive narrative of "Broken Britain" and go on to argue that in fact it could be a calamitous misdiagnosis of the state of affairs. They go on to conclude that, Britain has a crunched economy, an out-of-control deficit and plenty of social problems; but it is not 'broken'. Lib Dems like me concur wholeheartedly. In my previous post, I said that Boris Johnson was acting the Court Jester at the Court of King Cameron. I should clarify and say that I had in mind Rigoletto (although I am no way suggesting that he is capable of hiring an assassin to murder his master), rather than Feste in Twelfth Night, a jester "wise enough to play the fool". Of course my favourite court jester was the film of the same name starring Danny Kaye: The chalice from the palace have the pellet with the poison?  No, the pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle. As a sitting magistrate, I generally do not like to comment on "Crime and Punishment" issues.  I do not want in anyway to compromise (or give the impression) my impartiality and independence. However, figures put out by the Tory Shadow Home Secretary alleging that violent crime had risen sharply under Labour, and their subsequent rebuttal by Sir Michael Scholar (chair of the UK Statistics Authority), I feel, needs a comment. I don't mind when politicians get it wrong, we all do, but by giving an exaggerated picture of the "growth" of violent crime up and down the country, they are playing fast and loose with the public's feeling of security and safety, and indeed wrongly worsening their perception of "broken Britain", for party political gain. Which brings me to a story about BoJo (Mayor of London, Court Jester to the Court of King Cameron) wanting to cut the number of police officers by 500-ish in the capital, despite him campaigning for election on making crime-fighting his top priority. This would be the first major cut in police numbers in London since policing was devolved a decade ago. You simply cannot have the wannabe Tory Home Secretary stoking up people's fears about violent crime on the one hand, and the most powerful elected Tory reducing police numbers on the other. They are a shambles, and should not be allowed to to ru(i)n the country after the next general election. Just watched David Mellor describe DC as that happy, clappy, chappy. There are some things that money can't buy! Today, the Guardian dedicated much of its G2 section celebrating 40 years of Nancy Banks-Smith's contribution to the paper. The woman is a delight and can reasonably said to add to the sum of human joy whenever she puts pen to paper. If you want to find out what I'm blathering about look here She was the first thing I used to turn to when reading my "Grauniad", as it is I still try to find her contribution (she contributes intermittently).  Her writing, is warm, witty, and wonderful.  She ALWAYS makes me smile. I shall have a glass of Ruby (40 years, geddit?) port and raise a cheer to celebrate this amazing woman. Thank you Nancy. x The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has produced a report today saying that there is still massive uncertainty over the outlook for the British economy. It is critical that the Government has a plan to tackle the public finances which is flexible enough to adapt to the changing economic situation. The IFS rightly points out that cutting spending further this year would be extremely dangerous given the weakness of the economy. Not surprisingly, the Tories are now desperately trying to play down their desire to do just that. When, and by how much, public spending needs to be cut must be based on economic indicators, not Tory political dogma. And if there had been more of the world, They would have reached it. So wrote Luís de Camões in the 16th century in the Lusiads, an epic poem celebrating the voyages of Vasco de Gama in Homeric fashion. The Lusiads are Portugal's national epic, much in the way as Virgil's Aeneid, Ferdowi's Shahnameh, or indeed Homer's Odyssey It is fifty years now since PM Harold Macmillan, at a speech in Cape Town, said, “The wind of change is blowing through this continent.  Whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact”. This speech at the time, and since, has always been used as an example of the pragmatic attitude of the "modern" Conservative party. For me however, the key phrase is "Whether we like it or not", of course, we like it! Amandla! today is Groundhog Day, back in 1993 the film of the same day was released with Bill Murray in the lead role. It's a lovely little film in which condemned to live the same day over and over again until he learns his lesson and he begins to re-examine his life and priorities. Aaaah! Er...  No thanks George, you gamble with your own money (you've got more than enough) let serious politicians, like Vince Cable, run the economy. For a good graphic, far too big to reproduce here, go to I really am at a loss as to explain how the Tories are going to fix this "Broken Britain" they keep banging on about. But then again, I'm not alone, it seems that they don't either.  They vacillate between Senna the Soothsayer in Up Pompeii ("Woe, Woe, and thrice Woe") and Private Frazer in Dad's Army ("We're doomed") to merrily chanting "Here we go gathering cuts in May, On a cold and frosty morning". As we know when you have cuts in the public sector, unless done sensitively, and not swingeingly, it is those at the bottom end of society who disproportionately suffer most. The Hills report "An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK" shows that the richest 10% are more than 100 times as wealthy as the poorest 10%. Are the Tories going to set this right?  Are they heck as like.  They started the trend with Mrs Thatcher. Lib Dem policies of raising the tax threshold to £10k, and the "mansion tax" on properties over £2m will benefit four million poorer people and pensioners.  What do the Tories propose?  A tax cut for the RICHEST 3,000.  Get your priorities right, eh? Just back from a Question Time-style meeting at the Keighley Bangladesh Community Association, well-organised by a charming young man called Fulzar Ahmed, and ably-chaired by The Revd Sam Randall. It was a lively meeting and the questions wide-ranging from traffic congestion in Keighley to banning the burqa, through withdrawal from the EU and the state of our schools. Firstly thanks to Fulzar for organising and the BCA for hosting, also thanks to all three other candidates for contributing. I believe I was robust in putting forth the Lib Dem position on issues, local, regional, and national, and indeed a gentleman came up at the end to say that he had changed his mind and that he would be voting for me at the general elections! One down, twenty thousand to go. Today marks the day when slavery was officially abolished in the United States. President Lincoln was concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be seen as a temporary war measure and so the amendment was a means of guaranteeing the permanent abolition of slavery. Section 1.  Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. The US has been, is, and can be capable of achieving great things in the name of freedom, but when it gets it wrong... Today we should celebrate! </td>

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