Election fallout 2015 - What future for the Barnet Lib Dems?

This will be our final word on the General Election 2015. I am sure you will all be pleased to hear that. I am going to be taking a break from political blogging for a while, as I've a couple of music projects I really need to concentrate on (more of that later). This isn't a "Don't Call Me Dave" style retirement. If something major blows up, of course I'll be back on the keyboard, but as wev've got no general election for five years and no council election for three years, I have to conclude that my time would be better spent writing about things I enjoy. As ever guest blogs are welcome. I am especially pleased to see the amazing response to Stephen McKenzies blog about the Hendon Conservative campaign. As Stephen is a teeneager, it is great to see talented people come through in the next generation.

Anyway, enough of that. I left the Lib Dems till last as I think this is the logical tailend to what I've had to say. In Barnet, for general elections, there is a seeming 2 way face off between the Tories and Labour. In the council the picture is rather different. Until 2010, the Lib Dems had 6 councillors. This consisted of 3 in Childs Hill, 2 in Mill Hill and 1 in High Barnet. Going into the 2010 election, the Lib Dems had high hopes of taking even more seats, hoping for increases in Mill Hill and High Barnet. As the date of the Council election coincided with the General Election, a huge turnout saw these hopes blown away. The group was cut down to 3. In the 2014 election, the anti coalition backlash saw this cut to 1, the veteran Jack Cohen. This near wipeout was mostly due to Labour targetting Childs Hill in a completely idiotic attempt to try and take advantage of the situation. The net result was that the Tories gained 2 seats and retained control of the council.





In the General Election, Lib Dem voters gave Andrew Dismore and the local Labour party payback for this and defected en mass to the Tories, delivering a huge increase in vote for Matthew Offord. What Dismore had failed to appreciate was that whilst Labour leaning Lib Dems were savvy enough to vote Labour aready, Tory leaning ones (or Labour disliking ones) simply jumped to the Offord boat. Given that Offord is hard right, hating same sex marriage and the EU, to back Offord was clearly a big jump, but one that Dismore had pushed them to. His atttude to the Lib Dems had been patronising and had rubbed many up the wrong way. The Lib Dems had chosen an excellent local candidate in Alasdair Hill. As I attended the hustings, it was clear to me that I'd rather have Alasdair than any of those on offer, if I was the sole voter. His efforts for the Library campaign have been fantastic. He is honest, decent and sensible. Sadly for Alasdair, he was standing for a party that the electorate had chosen to give a right good kicking to, for the coalition.

Personally I despaired of the Lib Dem national campaign. If I'd have been head of their National Campaign, I'd have had one simple message. If the Tories win an outright majority, they will lurch to the right, destroy the NHS, clobber the poorest and most vulnerable members of society and give their super rich billionaire backers a huge tax cut, despite running a huge defecit. The message I would have sent to Lib Dem voters is "If you don't vote for us on May 7th, six months later you will regret it, when the Tories start ripping the country apart".  We are seeing the first signs of this, with George Osborne setting a new budget, just a couple of months after setting one with the Coalition. If anyone believes that this is anything other than George implementing a hard right agenda, they need to wake up and smell the coffee. There is no point moaning about what Osborne has done. The Tories did not campaign on a "If we get a majority, we'll carry on as if the Lib Dems are still there" slate. They said they wanted a majority, so they could enact truly Tory policies. I believe these policies are socially divisive in a way the coalition never was. What really saddens me is that arts and creative budgets are likely to suffer most. The Tories are phasing out funding for arts foundation courses and slashing budgets. Creative industries generate £8 million an hour for the economy, yet they are seen as "not serious subjects".

The truth is that the Tories knew that the best way to win was to knock out what they saw as the soft Lib Dem votes, which they did spectacularly well. The Lib Dems were just to stupid and nice to do anything about it. Many commentators say "What is the point of the Lib Dems?". Well as far as I can see, both at a local and national level, the case has been made but people have simpl not bothered to notice. When the Lib Dems were in council in Mill Hill, they had active and highly motivated councillors, who looked after the neighbourhood. The Tories have been a disaster. The worst example of this is the "Saracens CPZ exclusion zone". This monstrous scheme has seen hundreds of local residents clobbered with fines and forced to park miles away when visiting friends. Despite hundreds of protests, our local councillors did nothing to stop the scheme. This simply wouldn't have happened if the Lib Dems had been councillors. Unlike the Tory councillors, who simply toe the party line and do what they are told, the Lib Dems had a strong record of fighting for local residents and ensuring local issues were top of the agenda. Sadly in 2014, the Lib Dems didn't even bother running a proper campaign in Mill Hill, despite holding 2 seats only four years before. This was in part due to well respected former councillor Jeremy Davies having personal matters to deal with and partly due to a complete lack of activists.

On the national scene, only time will tell if I am proven right, but I beleive that once we've seen the full force of Tory policies and cuts, many will realise that giving the Lib Dems a kicking was a terrible mistake. Whilst I disagreed with much of what the coalition did and was particularly disgusted by the tuition fees U-Turn, I awoke on May 8th to face the harsh reality that like many former Lib Dem supporters, my walking away from the party had ulimately given the Tories carte blache to run riot.

This has been borne out by a huge surge in Lib Dem membership. Apparently the party has gained 10,000 new members since the election. As I mentioned at the top of this blog, I am stepping away from politics for a while to concentrate on music and other projects. I have decided that in October, I will consider my options and may rejoin a political party. I was a member of the Labour Party from 1983 until 2009. I joined the Lib Dems in 2009 and resigned in 2011, when my membership was up for renewal in disgust at the tuition fees debacle. In October, my five year ban from the Labour Party is up. I cannot rejoin if Alison Moore is still the Leader of the group on Barnet Council. By then, they will have a new Leader, and so we need to see how that goes. As things stand, I would join the Lib Dems and try and help the party rebuild their local base of councillors. I believe that this will only be done with a long campaign and lots of hard work.  I really can't see any circumstances where I would join the local Tories. I was asked if there were any circumstances I'd vote Tory and the answer was yes. I would always vote for them tactically to keep UKIP or the BNP out. Whilst they are completely hell bent on destroying art and culture in the UK, they clearly will be pariahs with anyoe who cares about these issues. Having said that I will be seeking a meeting with our local MP's to try and convince them to change their stance on support of arts and music. I believe there is a hard economic case for this and that they should at least be prepared to listen. I will be asking for their support for the #SaveLondonMusic campaign in the House of Commons. It is worth noting that only Alasdair Hill, the Lib Dem candidate publicly supported the campaign, which is one reason I feel he is an excellent candidate.

With the first past the post system, tactical voting is the only way to prevent parties you do not want from getting in. I favour a move to PR and only the Lib Dems support this. I believe it would give us a far more healthy parliament. I'd like to see a system rather like the GLA with local MP's and a list, so there was still a chance for quality independent candidates (such as Martin Bell) to get in. I do believe that there is a role for  3rd parties, but they have to be sensible and pragmatic with their targets. This is why I have an issue with the Greens in Barnet. I cannot see any way they will ever succeed in either council or national elections. At present the only green votes that count are in European and GLA elections. I'd love to see them do well in these, as I think that the Green agenda is important, but the fact that they have continually split the progressive vote in Barnet is, to me, a constant source of irritation. When I was canvassing for the Lib Dems in 2010, there was a council election and a general election. My message to all voters on the doorstep was the same. If your top priority is to keep the Conservatives out, then in the Council elections only the Lib Dems will do this. In the general election, realistically only the Labour candidate will.

For the Lib Dems to be able to say that in 2018, will require a huge amount of hard work. I don't know whether I will be part of it or not, a period of reflection is required. But I hope that whatever happens, the party picks itself up off the ropes. 

FSB Business hustings at Allianz Park

Tonight we had the Federation of Small Business Election  hustings at Allainz Park.

The event started with  a 3 minute video/advert for the  FSB.

Chair Michael Lassman introduced the event by stating that under the coalition small buisness have lead the country out of recession by working 20% harder for 20% less money. There were murmurs of approval. With that he allowed the panel to intoduce themseves.

Alasdair Hill, the Hendon Lib Dem candidate said small biz  was the life blood of country. He said the Lib Dems had helped by jumping into bed with the Tories, thus putting (ministerial limo's) the country before party. He emphasised that only the Lib Dems committed to a strong UK in the EU.

Next up was Richard Hill Finchley and Golders Green UKIP. He runs local jujitsu club and is married to British Indian. He's worked in the UK and abroad. He loves foreign food, but hates an EU superstate (or words to that effect). He thinks over regulation from EU stifling business, because the  EU creates regulation. HE believes that you do not have to be in EU to trade with them, and that if we left the EU everyting would be just fine.

Next up we had Luke Parker,  Tory candidate Brent North. HE's the son of a pub landlord. He works for IBM. Rather bizarrely, he said his Dad spent his life in front of computer figuring out regulations, when he was small. I am guessing his age, but I'd say that when he was small, the only computers available were mainframes from IBM and not too many pubs had them in. Maybe he's just had a hard life and he's really only 14? He's paassionate about small businesses (although not enough to leave his job working for a multinational). He was pleased that 385,000 small firms paying less rates and that Govt procurement from 6 to 10% with small businesses.

Next up was Poppy, the Barnet Green. She told us that the greatest threat is sustainability. We need a Democratic voice and the other parties in hock of big business. She was here to reassert the right of small small business to vote green to stop other parties selling out. She believes in hyper localism.

Finally we had Sarah Sackman from Labour. She comes from small business background. Her Grandfather still lives above the family biz,  which has recently  gone on line. Sarah believes there is no contradiction between wealth creation and social justice. She feels there is no justice if for millions work doesn't pay and  millions work every hour and can't pay bills.

The 1st question was about min wage & London living wage.

Luke supports London Living wage and believes it can help rebalance economy

Poppy said the Greens been pushing longer than everyone and we need a less polarised society. She observed very few jobs lost to living wage.

Sarah said that raising people out of poverty is a key priority and can be done by strengthening living wage. She advocates Tax rebates for employers who opt in to living wage. 

Richard said  there are two aspects. It affects small biz and  that regulating market creates black market. It's all down to EU that we have a bigger black market than ever.

Alasdair Hopes for an increase in minimum wage.

Q. Which of their parties policy is best and worst for Small business

Sarah said the best is to cut and freeze biz rates and the worst to increase nat min wage.

Alasdair said best is  small biz bill forcing large companies to pay SME's on time. The worst was the commitment to capital investment is too slow

Luke said the best is getting finance to SME's . Worst and the worst were policies that don't help thehigh street.

Richard said the Best was to leave the EU and cut regulation. Worst. I don't know as he waffled about nothing in particular.

Paul Shea, former owner of Tally Ho discount asked  "do candidates recognise the damage done to high street by council parking policies"

Poppy said Paul is a prized campaigner. New pay by phone policies had terrible caused decline and Barnet was the worst council in the world. Starbucks don't pay their taxes. She said it is Not ok to let high street die. She will raise rates relief, reduce vat on cooked food.

Helen Michael, Finchley traders campaigner then stood up. She explained that she'd represented traders of North Finchley. In 5 years they'd collected 20000 sigs, attended meetings but all actions had been ignored. Arrogance & ignorance of councillors was unbelievable. Traders need a helping hand. She said time for politicians to stop talking and take action.

Luke said the problem comes from lack of disclipline in Council (maybe he's a fan of 50 Shades of Grey).

Richrd said Councils don't care about small biz. He said the public don't eaither as we all shop at Tesco and Sainsbury. UKIP have policy of local referendum, where 6% of local voters can trigger a referendum to address such issues.

Xohan, a local trader asked,  do you support local council planning control

Alasair said betting shops are a scourge. Greater restrictions on betting machinesare needed. He said we need imaginative localised planning regimes.

Sarah said  it is ironic that Barnet council Tories claim to champion local business yet has facilitated the demise of local High St. She will lobby the council to bring in fair parking and that local authorities need to be able to spend tax locally

Q. Lots of SME's have problems accessing finance.

Luke. Obviously an issue. Tories have prioritised over last 5 years

Poppy. Big banks haven't lent. Greens will control banks and  Break big banks up.

Richard rather uncharitably replied "Beware green communist" (he clearly doesn't know his political hisory). He added the current govt only interested in big corporations

Alasadir said the Greens &. UKIP miss the point because the coalition has released £3 bil of financing for SME's.

Sarah said one thing we need to address is competition in lending.

Q. Which party will bring criminal prosecutions against bankers. 

Sarah said we need to send out a message that bankers that it is unacceptable to break the law.

Luke said that  vilifying banks all the time is a bad things.

Local Tory agitator Dan Hope tried to trip up Sarah Sackman with a barbed question about Sweets Way "Under what if any circumstances is it ok to squat in commercial property"

Luckily for Sarag, Richard rode to her rescue. He said it is Ok when no democratic accountability

Poppy added  that the  Unregulated. Property market cused the problem as Government has made it illegal to occupy private property.

A Question from UKIP Activist Victor Kaye followed. "The London plan for housing says 40% min for affordable housing. Lucky to see 25%"

Sarah said there was no contradiction between wealth creation and social justice and that affordable housing is too expensive. She added we need political will to build social housing.

Alasdair said the housing squeeze was hurting business as workers need  local places to live and  Direct action is OK in cases where democracy has failed, but protestors need to think of end game

Richard said the housing crisis is all the fault of immigrants.

Q. COuld the £50 billion for HS2 how could that be better spent?

Luke.  The money could be spent elsewhere, but didn't really elaborate.

Sarah. Supports HS2. And said that it is no accident that leader of Manchester council wants HS2. All this is critical infrastructure to keep the nation ticking over.

Alasadir Supports HS2 for redistribution of wealth. He commented that it is funny that the greens are against HS2 as they like public transport and hate air travel. He said he'd move the start of HS2  north ????

Richard said HS2 is complete madness aimed purely at centralising power in London and a new report by lords undermines biz case. Odd really that a candidate wants to take wealth away from his own rejoin/

Micael then finished witha 2 mins slot for each, asking

Where would you vote against your own party?
 

Luke said "If not in Brent North interests. He added that it is right FSB are apolitical but said we are nt facing New Labour but old Labour and his campaign needs dosh!"

Alasdair said "In the last 5 years Lib Dems stabilised the economy, will balance deficit and won't borrow as much as Labour"

Richard said . All parties support EU apart from UKIP. He added thatBritain isn't a democracy.

Poppy. All other parties  big biz parties and all support TTIP (Richard objected and said UKIP don't. The Barnet Eye helpfully suggested that UKIP & the Greens form a coalition).

Sarah said she was  Rebutting Luke. She said the tories were supposed to be a Tories a party of effort. Too many people working too hard for too little. Fundamental betrayal of citizens if top 1% are only beneficiaries.

And that folks was that!