Have your say Jims Blog

Labour v Tory - real divide in British politics

I didn't see the BBC news last night, but the normally reliable and well informed Nick Robinson said that I and 5 other members of the Cabinet were involved in some sort of plot against the Prime Minister. This is utter rubbish, and if the BBC had bothered to contact me about it I would have told them so. In fact, if they had bothered to contact themselves they would have known so. I gave an interview to the BBC in Scotland at 2pm yesterday where I made clear any talk of plots and secret ballots was a total distraction from the focus we all need to have on protecting jobs and assisting the recovery. This is particularly the case in Scotland where the SNP government is simply not doing enough.

Yesterday Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon took it upon themselves to indulge in the total distraction of demanding a vote on the Prime Minister's future. It was a ludicrous thing to do, and the response from the vast majority of Labour MPs has confirmed that view. Our number one priority as Labour politicians should be working hard to get Scotland and Britain out of the recession, so the unemployed can get back to work. As I made clear in television, radio and newspaper interviews yesterday, the political divide in Britain is between Labour and Tory, and shouldn't be Labour versus Labour. We should focus our political attention on David Cameron's Tories, who are less popular today in Scotland than Mrs Thatcher ever was. Yesterday's tiny plot was wrong, as was the BBC reporting of it - neither should have happened.

More services for our local Post Offices

I back more services for our Post Offices. (Click here to see more info on my local consultation launch)  

Post Offices are a great British institution that has been part of our communities for over three hundred years. I know how deeply people in East Renfrewshire care about the future of our Post Offices.

At a time when some banks and financial services companies are seeking to reduce face to face contact with customers, the Post Office stands out.

It offers a trusted brand, and has more branches than the high street banks combined. It is ideally placed to bring banking services back to the heart of people’s communities.

So I am supporting plans for new financial products and services to be made available at our Post Offices in East Renfrewshire. Like current accounts and children’s saving accounts.

I support this as it will give people in East Renfrewshire access to a full range of banking products at an institution we all trust and value.

I want people in East Renfrewshire to have their say. The Labour Government is looking at this right now, so it is an opportunity for us to tell Government Ministers what we want and need from our Post Offices.

 

Bankers bonusses

The banking world has to wake up to bonus payments, especially those who have been bailed out by the taxpayer. It is incredible that after having £25bn of public money to keep them open they are thinking it is business as usual It is not.

The public have borne the brunt of their past decisions and kept them afloat when they where on the verge of collapse. It is immoral to think that as the rest of the country struggles through a recession they can continue to pay themselves super bonus’ and threaten to quit if the public don’t agree.

I think that the veto UKFI hold is important and should be used – we would be neglecting out duty as a shareholder if we didn’t have this power in reserve.

Webchat on Scotland’s Future in the United Kingdom

Next Tuesday (8th) at 2pm I’ll be doing a live webchat from Downing Street about the white paper, ‘Scotland’s Future in the United Kingdom’ that we published last week.

It’s a substantial and substantive set of proposals, reflecting the time, effort and expertise that went into producing the final report by the Calman Commission, and I think it was well received in the Commons, by the media and by the majority of Scots who want to see a strong Scotland within the UK.

But it’ll be interesting to hear what people make of it now once they’ve had time to reflect on our plans a bit more, and also to contrast them with the Scottish Government’s referendum proposals from earlier this week.

Send me your questions via the Number 10 website and I’ll try to answer as many of them as I can in the hour.

You can also read the statement and the white paper by following the links below

Read the full statement to the House of Commons

Read the White Paper: Scotland’s Future in the United Kingdom

A Red face to warm London

At Prime Ministers Questions earlier today the exchanges were about Afghanistan and the Economy. I think it is pretty important that as far as possible there is political consensus on Afghanistan. That's not to say the Opposition shouldn't be asking questions about strategy and tactics - they should. But all those in senior posts in government or opposition parties should focus on the fact that we all believe that our troops are there for good reasons and doing remarkable work.
However on the other topic of the economy there is no consensus whatsoever. David Cameron is out of his depth when it comes to dealing with the policy area the Prime Minister knows beat. It doesn't help that his policy on tax cuts for multi-millionaires (the richest 300 families in Scotland) is really a pretty unfair way of getting the country out of recession.
Cameron knew he was on to a loser. You can always tell when David Cameron feels he is losing. His face turns bright red as he overheats. Today his face could warm all of London during this December chill!

Scotland’s Future in the United Kingdom

Busy week. In the House of Commons for Scottish Questions and then made a statement about the UK Government’s response to the Calman Commission.

Devolution has been a great success. No one can argue with that. It has been one of the great achievements of this Government. Now was the right time to build on the success of the first ten years. I am really grateful for all the hard work put in by Ken Calman and his Commission and from the other political parties who helped to get us to this point.

Since the first day of devolution, the Scottish Government has been accountable for how it spends taxpayers’ money. Under today’s proposals, they will also be held to account for how they raise it. We will give the Scottish Parliament greater freedom – but also the responsibility – to set the level of income tax in Scotland.

In future, the size of Scotland’s budget will be down to decisions made in Scotland. In addition to new tax powers, we will also give the Scottish Parliament new powers and responsibilities on capital borrowing.

We will also devolve stamp duty land tax, aggregates levy, and landfill tax, and will keep the Commission’s recommendation about Air Passenger Duty under review.

We will introduce a Scotland Bill to do this as soon as possible in the next Parliament. We plan to have the changes in place for the next term of the Scottish Parliament.

Let me know what you think.

New protection for Scotch Whisky

I was delighted to visit Grangemouth Port to launch the new Whisky regulations this week– an important day for the Scotch Whisky industry as new regulations come into force. These regulations will help to protect one of our biggest industries in Scotland by outlawing the bottling of Single Malt outside Scotland, to put some perspective on its importance – last year the industry was worth over £3bn in exports, a quarter of all food and drink exports from the UK.

I was joined by Gavin Hewitt Chief Executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, Jim Fitzpatrick – Minister for Food, Farming and the Environment at DEFRA, Michael Connarty MP and Cathy Peattie MSP – all of us agreed that this is a step in the right direction – tightening up on the use distillery and regional names, banning the use of ‘Pure’ along with clearer labelling will protect consumers by helping them identify where their Whisky has come from and it will also support the industry by consolidating the legal framework.

The success of the product has attracted imitators and it is important that we protect our key industries, we cannot allow others to trade of our good name and pass off inferior goods as being produced in Scotland. These new rules will protect Scotch Whisky around the globe. The new legislation is the result of years of hard work between the industry and government and has produced a legal framework that the industry can use with confidence to defend itself and its consumers.

Well done BBC on Faith

I was pleased to see that the BBC has decided to maintain the Radio 4 Thought for the Day slot as a Faith based slot. There was an attempt to open it up to agnostics or atheists. This was a decision for the BBC but it seems to make sense to me that a least one space is protected for the promotion of thought provoking faith based conversation. In saying this I don't believe that religion should be forced upon anyone but it seems fine to me that for at least a couple of minutes a day this happens. I was also surprised to hear recently just how many Scots listen to Radio 4 in the morning.You may have your own views.
To read the BBC story on this click here http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/17/bbc-thought-for-the-day

Tory party and their new friends in Europe

I recently blogged on the new European political grouping the Conservatives have joined. (click here to view)  Below is a comment I posted on the Glasgow Jewish Educational Forum regarding this serious matter.

I have followed the debate on this site about the Tory party and their new friends in Europe. I thought I should do something that I have never done before and comment on another blog to offer my view. I have never done this before but this issue has made me so angry.

Before being Secretary of State for Scotland I was Minister for Europe, which included having responsibility for the UK government’s work on combating anti-Semitism internationally. It was a responsibility I took very seriously as that is still a big job to do particularly in some cities in central and eastern Europe. That's why I am so appalled at the Tory party decision to join forces with some of Europe’s more hardline politicians.

The Tories are so obsessed about Europe that they have left the political mainstream and found common cause with a peculiar group of Euro politicians.

The Conservatives are putting their Party’s interests before our country’s needs. Being engaged in the European mainstream is good for Britain. Labour is in a grouping with other centre Left parties across Europe which gives Britain a real interest. Up until now the Tories were in a centre right grouping of decent Conservatives. All of this is good for Britain. That's why it is bewildering that the Tory party have turned their backs on Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Germany's Angela Merkel - mainstream conservative politicians, and instead sided with those on the outer reaches of European politics. Why you might ask have they done this? It’s because the Tory party is still obsessed by Europe. Mrs Thatcher had a very strong view about Europe but this lot are much more Eurosceptic. They are also determined to appeal to the 3% or so of voters that side with UKIP. This means that a Party that wants to be our next government is totally without allies in Europe. David Miliband is right to say what he has said. The sad thing about this is the total silence from Tory candidates across the country. Many of them are decent people and they are embarrassed by how far their Party has gone. It’s time for Tory candidates to stand up for what's right and say publicly what many of them feel privately. In politics you are judged by the company you keep. On this issue the judgement on the Tories is rightly very harsh.

The passing of a generation

Today is an important day and one that, as a nation we should never lose sight of or allow to slip into obscurity.

At 11:00 o’clock today I stood with other politicians, members of the military and members of the public who had a family member who fought in The Great War. It is right that as a nation we have a national memorial service to remember those who fought and died in that war, those who returned at the end, and the men and women who worked at home to ensure they would succeed.

With the passing of Harry Patch earlier this year we have lost our final tie to the first world war and the sacrifice they made. The values he and the men at front displayed; Courage, Discipline, Selfless Commitment, Integrity, Loyalty and Respect, are just as important today as they were then and they will continue to be so.

We should remember the men and women who have given so much for us in all wars and conflicts, their sacrifice allow us today to go about our daily lives in freedom, without worry and fear of what is awaiting us around the corner.