Election Broadcast

In common with every other Lib Dem Blogger, here's the Local election Broadcast which succinctly outlines some of the key achievements in National Government. I particularly like Nick Clegg's comment that

"we should make sure that tax cuts are aimed at people on middle and lower incomes and I just want us to move the tax system in a direction where there is less tax on income, effort and work and more tax on wealth and the wealthy."

The video is light on achievements in Local Government - I assume these will be elaborated on later in campaign and by local parties - but party members got an e-mail from Jo Swinson MP today which outlined some of these too:

Unlike Labour and the Conservatives, every Liberal Democrat council in England has frozen council tax.

Also, according to the Local Government Chronicle, Liberal Democrat councils are twice as likely to give pay rises to low paid workers compared to Labour and five times more likely than the Conservatives.

Anyway, here's the video:

Andrew

Sooo... What have the Liberal Democats achieved in Government?

I recently posted a piece which had a link to Mark Pack's Facebook page where he is posting an achievement for the Lib Dems in government every day. Today, though, he has published this 'infographic' which pinpoints a number of the party's policies which are now being enacted.

You can visit Mark's site here, where you can see a larger version and also sign up to his excellant monthly e-mail.

Andrew

16 Good Things... and counting daily!

It's been a while, but look out for more frequent posts going forward...

This post is to a couple of links which may be of interest... First, with a hat-tip to the great Jennie Rigg upon whose blog I found this link, a blogpost by Andrew Hickey: Sixteen good things the Lib Dems have achieved..

The second link is to Mark Pack's e-mail newsletter's Facebook page where he is posting a daily Lib Dem achievement - you can "like" it here.

Andrew

P.S. There is still the odd political post over on the widow's world too...

The Pupil Premium

One of the biggest achievements of the Liberal Democrats in this government is pushing through the introduction of the "Pupil Premium". Whilst this was in both party's manifestos, the Tory commitment was much less specific than the Lib Dem's policy as I discussed here.

Today the Department for Education announced that next year a total of £1.25bn will be available for the programme, partly due to a reduction in the number of pupils claiming free school meals, with the figure increasing to £2.5bn in 2014-15. This is important as £2.5bn was the commitment in the Liberal Democrat's manifesto.

But what does £2.5bn mean in practice? Too often we hear governments and others bandy around large figures out of context in the hope that their size alone will impress. In my constituency (Bristol South) the Premium will amount to £1.84m - again hard to assess given the size of the constituency and number of schools involved.

Fortunately, the government is being open about the funding formula: an extra £488 for every pupil on free school meals, aggregated and paid on a per-school basis.

This money can be spent as the school feels fit but there is no doubt that this measure is a real attempt to target funding at those areas of need - a point addressed in this letter to party members from Sarah Teather MP, Minister of State for Children and Families (pictured above):

"Dear Andrew,

Liberal Democrats have always believed that education is the engine of social mobility, now we are making it happen.

Today the Government released the final Pupil Premium figures for every English local authority, constituency and school. I am delighted to announce that every school this year will receive an extra £488 for each child on free school meals they have on their roll.

Schools in your constituency of Bristol South are getting an extra £1,840,000 from the Pupil Premium to improve the education of the most disadvantaged children. You can find out what each school in your council area is getting by clicking here.

This is a real milestone for our party. The Pupil Premium is a policy we devised and campaigned for, and put at the heart of our Coalition negotiations. Now it is more than good policy, it is a reality making a difference to the school down your road. It goes directly into classrooms and will benefit all pupils.

It is also a milestone in breaking the link between poverty and achievement, tackling Labour’s shocking legacy where the richest 16-year olds are three times as likely to get five good GCSEs as the poorest.

This is just the start. We know that some families eligible for free school meals don’t claim them, for example, because some don’t know they can, and so their schools are missing out on funding. We also need to find out what schools are doing that’s really making a difference.

If you’d like to help, you could contact your local school to find out how they are using their Pupil Premium funding, and how they are making sure they are reaching every child.

Together, we can ensure every child is able to fulfil their potential.

Thank you

Sarah Teather MP
Minister of State, Department for Education"

This is a major achievement of being in coalition - and deserves to be shouted from the rooftops for the next 3 and a half years.

Andrew

The Green Edition

Yesterday I along with, presumably everyone else on the Lib Dem membership e-mail list, received an e-mail from Simon Hughes (in his capacity as President of the Green Lib Dems) with regard to the party's achievements on Green Issues. Unfortunately I didn't have time to blog last night, so here I am, at the coo's tail as usual.

Those of you who follow Caron's Musings may already have seen her take on the e-mail which got her on the wrong foot from the off - and with good reason. Here, however, is the main text, complete with the links provided. 

Two weeks ago, Chris Huhne, as Energy and Climate Change Secretary, led for the government when his Department's Energy Bill received its second reading in the House of Commons. This creates the framework for the Green Deal, a comprehensive programme of energy efficiency improvements for housing and office buildings, cutting both energy bills and emissions. Householders and business will be able to see up to £10,000 invested in insulation, at no up-front cost, paying back the investment through the lower energy bills they will enjoy as a result.

Last week, Chris Huhne announced the government’s ‘carbon budget’ for the mid-2020s, setting a legal requirement for a 50 per cent reduction (from 1990) by 2025. This creates the certainty businesses need to put in place long-term investments in the expanding low-carbon industries – renewable electricity, electric cars, home insulation. This is the most ambitious legally binding carbon budget set by any government anywhere; and by putting the UK at the forefront of the international debate, we will be able to push the EU and the international community towards further emissions cuts world-wide.

And this week, Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, revealed details of the Green Investment Bank, the world’s first green development bank. Up and running from April 2012, this will use an initial £3 billion of public money to lever an additional £15 billion in private investment towards the low-carbon opportunities that are opening up – particularly in offshore wind and energy efficiency.

I was this party’s first environment spokesman over twenty years ago. It makes me proud to see what so many of us campaigned for all those years ago being made a reality now we’re in government. This is a key part of what we Liberal Democrats bring to the coalition, and none of this would have happened without us. As Nick said yesterday, ‘the LibDems have long been the greenest of the main three parties - the difference now is that it is not just a green party but a green party of government’.

Simon Hughes MP

Over on Lord Bonkers' blog, he has an excerpt from a very favourable report on these developments - from the Telegraph, believe it or not!


Andrew

Nick lists some Lib Dem Achievements...

In a post here on Wednesday I mentioned Nick Clegg's speech at the National Liberal Club, marking the first anniversary of the coalition government. As part of that speech he discussed what he sees as some of the challenges for the party and for coalition government in the next few years as well as listing some of the Liberal Democrat successes achieved so far.

Many of these have already been mentioned on this blog, but here is a list of the things Nick chose to highlight in his speech:

"...cutting income tax for ordinary taxpayers

ending child detention 

increasing the state pension 

introducing free nursery education for disadvantaged 2 year olds 

adding a quarter of a million apprenticeships 

increasing tax on capital gains 

reining in the banks

creating a Green Investment Bank and a green deal

getting more money into schools to help poorer pupils."

 

Earlier, there was an interesting section of the speech emphasising the Lib Dem's strength on the the economy in the last parliament and giving a vision of a rebalanced economy for the future:

"But we also needed a Government willing to embark on the long-term changes necessary to fix the economy for the future. Short-term repair and long-term reform: that’s the Liberal Democrat economic agenda in government.

... 

The Liberal Democrats were in the lead in identifying what was wrong with the economy long before the last election. The dangers of the deficit, for one: in fact I remember being criticised for warning of the depth of the cuts that would be required.

But we have also been warning for years about the way in which the economy had become dangerously lopsided; too reliant on London and the South East; pumped up on private and public debt; at the mercy of an under-regulated banking sector; and struggling with a creaking infrastructure.

It is this Liberal Democrat analysis of what is wrong with the economy that underpins the Government’s approach to putting it right.

Reform of the banking system. A Regional Growth Fund to support businesses across the nation. A Green Investment Bank to build the green infrastructure needed to cut carbon emissions.

In short, a rewiring of the economy to ensure sustainable, balanced growth."

Andrew

Accentuating the Positive

There hasn't been a lot for the Liberal Democrats to cheer about in the past couple of weeks and the blogosphere is awash with analysis of where we're at and how we remedy the situation. An excellent post in this regard can be found at Caron's Musings in which she reacts to Nick Clegg's speech this morning.

One of the key factors which has been identified for rebuilding the electoral base is the communication of the positive impact of the party on the coalition - not just on our pet issues but also on those issue which resonate most with the public. I think Caron's picked a particularly unsung Lib Dem Gain in the example she uses here:

"By suggesting that the Liberal Democrats be more assertive about their differences he makes it sound like we need to argue our case more in the Government. It's more that we have to do it in public. I know that our ministers have robustly fought and won arguments within the Government. Remember that mad idea of Osborne's of cutting Housing Benefit for people out of work for a year? That's gone. And who got rid of it? I'll give you a clue. It wasn't any Tory. It was our ministers calmly and feistily acting on behalf of the poorest and most vulnerable."

Over on Stephen's Liberal Journal, in his post reacting to Clegg's speech, he lists some of the issues and areas where the Lib Dem influence on Government policy has been stronger and gives the lie to Conservative claims that this is not the case (reported here):

"David Cameron is denying claims that Lib Dems have "moderated" the Conservative agenda. So Dave, as the Browne report suggested uncapped tuition fees, would the debacle of yesterday where [it was suggested] students paid full fees have become a reality for all without Lib Dem intervention? Would this have been brought in without any requirement on the Universities to help the poorer students into Higher Education? Would the income tax threshold have risen so far ahead of inflation, to ease the burden of your VAT increase on the poorest families? Would you have returned pensions in line with earnings, something your party has said for a long time they were against?"

There's a mountain to climb, and many other electoral tests to come, but there is also a lot of positive things to shout about even if things may have been somewhat negative of late. As well as learning the various lessons of last Thursday, we cannot and should not forget them. And we should communicate them as widely as possible.

Andrew

P.S. Stephen's post also features a bit of classic New Romantics in direct contravention of what Nick says about not going back to the Eighties! :-p

Lib Dem Gains - Bristol Edition

Earlier today I, along with party members throughout the UK, got an e-mail from Nick Clegg's office which outlined how some Liberal Democrat gains will impact on local areas - in my case, the City of Bristol. As a result, here's a special local edition of Lib Dem Gains:

• 158,000 people are getting a £200 income tax cut (a move which benefits 23 million people across the country
• 4,700 people have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether, with more to come
• £625 million extra has gone to Bristol schools, aimed at the most disadvantaged pupils and set to rise to £2.5 billion a year by 2015
• 64,800 pensioners have been given an extra £4.50 a week – and those retiring from today will be on average £15,000 better off over their retirement.

For those of you in Scotland, or otherwise interested in Scottish politics, mosey on over to Caron's Musings for a list of the gains that could be had from voting Lib Dem there this year.

Feel free to add your own local figures in the comments section, too.

Andrew

What The Hell Have The Lib Dems Done?

The aim of this blog is to document some of the gains made for Liberal Democratic principles and policies in government - either through specific articles or links other places where these are being celebrated.

While I've been without a computer, I became aware of WhatTheHellHaveTheLibDemsDone.com and am now, rather late in the day, able to blog about it. It's a fantastic randomiser of the party's achievements, complete with chapter and verse from the Manifesto.

Click here for the randomiser itemising the many things the Lib Dems have done in government - some of which have been featured on these very pages!

You can also follow it's creator, @william_summers on Twitter.

Andrew

Lib Dem Gains... in the words of Nick Clegg

I know posts here are sporadic but that doesn't meant that I don't believe the Liberal Democrats aren't achieving things in this government. It merely means that my focus has been on other things and that I've not used previous posts in quite the way I anticipated - e.g. as providing a brief digest of coverage on various issues elsewhere.

Anyway, this post comes on the heals of Nick Clegg's closing speech to the Spring Conference, which has garnered much coverage elsewhere. I therefore invite you to visit the party website for the text of the speech, Nick Thornsby's blog for his excerpt and brief analysis of the achievements of the past year and Lib Dem Voice for a summation of key points. 

Also worth a visit are Caron's Musings who has published excerpts with the promise of more analysis later - if you don't already follow her blog, you probably should - and Spiderplant Land where you'll find the text of Nick's opening speech to conference.

Andrew

Update: Virtually Naked also now has a brief assessment of Nick Clegg and the speech.

Lib Dem Achievements in Government

This blog is all about highlighting Liberal Democrat achievements in Government. As such, it will feature issues as and when they arise. 

A lot of movement had already been made on a number of manifesto commitments prior to me starting to post here, though. Fortunately a summary of these has been produced and you can find it here - it's well worth a read.

Andrew

Hat Tip to Matthew Harris for his blogpost on this (and to whoever posted the Twitter link that I followed to find it - unfortunately, I can't now locate the tweet concerned!)