Democracy is still alive in South Africa

Not enough publicity has been given in this country to the recent findings of corruption (which make our duck-houses and trouser-presses pale into insignificance) against South African President Jacob Zuma. The public purse had, at the president's private Nkandla home, built Zuma and his family a visitor centre, cattle kraal, chicken run, swimming pool, and amphitheatre among other things. The president is now being asked to pay back a good percentage of the costs.

The news reports demonstrate that in the new South Africa women can hold powerful positions. They also show that the law is above any politician, no matter how mighty. There are worrying moves by figures within the ruling ANC party to unseat the public prosecutor, Thuli Madonsela, but she has so far resisted them stoutly - and in view of the forthcoming elections, if the ANC overreaches, the party will almost certainly suffer at the ballot.

The Democratic Alliance, the Liberal International affiliated party in South Africa, has launched a bid for impeachment.

Rail electrification

The Wales Secretary, David Jones, has held out the possibility of electrification of the railway in North Wales as a result of a development in the HS2 programme (Western Mail report here).

This is against the background of doubt being cast on the electrification of the Valleys Lines, centred on Cardiff. Labour in Cardiff Bay is now claiming that the coalition government is reneging on a promise to pay for the scheme from central funds. This is puzzling, as Adrian Masters reveals on the ITV news website: there is a statement in writing from last year that Whitehall would recover the costs from the Welsh Government. The fact that not one Labour MP raised the matter at Transport Questions in the Commons yesterday suggests to me that the party is batting on a sticky. One wonders whether the making public of this spat is more to do with the Wales Bill, published yesterday, than rail transport.

Meantime, it is good to see confirmation from the Western Mail that there will be no going back on Great Western main line electrification: "Mr Cameron pointed out that the UK Government is 'directly funding' the electrification of the Great Western Main Line to Cardiff, and 'have committed' to funding the electrification of the line from Bridgend to Swansea."

Does Labour really regret the "24 tax rises"?

Thanks to Guido for providing the list:

The 24 Tory Tax Rises

1. VAT increased – to 20 per cent from 2011
2. Income Tax age-related allowances frozen and eligibility restricted (“Granny Tax”) from 2013-14
3. Income Tax higher rate threshold cut to £42,475 in 2011-12
4. Higher Income Child Benefit Charge introduced 2013
5. National Insurance Contributions rates, limits and thresholds increased in line with CPI rather than RPI from 2012-13
6. Income Tax higher rate threshold frozen at £42,475 in 2012-13
7. Insurance premium tax increased – from 2011
8. Capital Gains Tax increased – to 28 per cent for higher rate taxpayers from June 2010
9. New Beer Duty introduced on high strength beers from 2011
10. Duty on hand-rolling tobacco increased by an additional 10 per cent from 2011-12
11. ISA subscription limit uprated in line with CPI rather than RPI from 2012-13
12. National Insurance Contributions changes to contracting-out rebates from 2012-13
13. Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount frozen, 2012-13
14. Stamp Duty Land Tax increase to 7 per cent on properties over £2 million from 2012-13
15. VAT increases on a range of items, including caravans, sports drinks, and listed buildings from 2012
16. Duty on tobacco increased by RPI + 5 per cent in 2012
17. Income Tax higher rate threshold cut to £41,450 in 2013-14
18. Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount increased in line with CPI rather than RPI from 2013-14
19. Income Tax cap on reliefs introduced from 2013-14
20. Pension tax relief restricted from 2014-15 21.
21. Income Tax higher rate threshold Increase capped at 1 per cent in 2014-15 and 2015-16
22. Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount increase capped at 1 per cent, 2014-15 and 2015-16
23. Inheritance Tax threshold frozen in 2015-16
24. National Insurance Contributions ending of contracting-out rebates from 2016-17

My reaction was that virtually all affected people on higher incomes, and those that did not would almost certainly have been in Labour's first budget if they had been in government after the 2010 election. For instance, we know that Darling's spending plans assumed a VAT rise to 19%. He had also initiated the freeze on the Higher Age Allowance (the "granny tax") and was unlikely to have eased it in 2010.

Impressions of York 2014

To borrow a joke from Tim Farron, a settlement which survived the Romans (and, according to Andrew Duff, was where Constantine, the first Christian emperor, was proclaimed) and the Vikings easily coped with an influx of Liberal Democrats. 

Even the weather in York was welcoming. Admittedly, it was a bit chilly at the start of the weekend and overcast on Saturday morning, but the weekend ended on a gloriously warm note. The police and security people were friendly though thorough, with none of the heavy-handedness which marred the Sheffield and, I understand, a number of later conferences.

As befits a once-Roman city, geese were much in evidence, and not just on

the rivers. Whether they act as alarms any more was not clear.

It's a young city. If you didn't know it had a large student population from the number of pubs and late-night convenience stores, the street scene on a Friday or Saturday evening would leave no doubt. There was student input to the conference debate on European Union membership, younger people particularly relishing the opportunities for travel and work abroad.

The good nature extended to the rest of Conference. The “top table” had its way on almost everything: the only vote which went against the Federal committees was a Liberal reassertion of fair votes for all elections. The official motion entitled “Power to the People” had included a proposal for open lists for European Parliament elections – better than the closed party lists which we suffer in the UK at present, but still a compromise too far.

More disappointing was the muted response to the slow progress in bringing fairness to the housing benefit restrictions. Don Foster, for the parliamentary party, announced at a Q&A session that IPSOS-MORI had begun research into the effects of the additional-rooms cut. Why an opinion research organisation was chosen for the task and why Linda Jack (or any other member of the Social Liberal Forum) did not press on this remain mysteries to me.

There was no time to fulfil my hope of visiting at least one of the historic museums, not even the Railway Museum, but at least I enjoyed the ambience of the narrow streets on their ancient pattern – and of course the warmth of the natives.

Bulford and Deepcut

The guilty people will probably never be brought to justice, but, as the Independent editorialises, surely at least the Ministry of Defence must recognise its duty of care.

Ukraine

Coincidentally, this follows on from yesterday's post about Nigel Farage's attitude to migrants from the continent of Europe. When I read the accusations of Russian president Putin and Ukrainian president-manqué Yanukovych that the Kiev protesters were organised by the West and dominated by neo-Nazis, I immediately thought of those Ukrainian immigrants to Britain after the second world war. Putin has raised the spectre of the Ukrainians who sided with Hitler in the 1930s in order to frighten people into his camp.

However, as this history shows, significant numbers of Ukrainians came the other way, to a UK run by Attlee's Labour government, to help win the peace by working in industry and, especially, in the coalfields of Yorkshire, the English Midlands, Scotland and South Wales. I remember the Ukrainian Club in Morriston, Swansea, surviving well into the 1960s and I see from the AUGB web-site that Ukrainian societies in other parts of the kingdom are still thriving.

Putin's rhetoric has already been compared with that of Hitler before his annexation of Sudetenland. Chris Bryant drew the comparison half-way through today's questioning of William Hague and it is surprising that the parallel hadn't been drawn earlier. Mr Hague and some commentators have characterised the effective seizure of Crimea as an emotional response to criticism of perceived weakness at home. The latter does seem unlikely, given that any electoral opposition is likely to come from the liberal side and was easily seen off by fair means and foul in the last elections. The fact that the annexation of Crimea went smoothly and comprehensively suggests that it had been planned well in advance. I suspect that the planning started as early as the time of the Orange Revolution in case the after-effects of this were not favourable to the Russians. It seems to me that Putin does see the endgame, the "figure in the marble" as Gerald Abrahams put it in The Chess Mind. This does not necessarily include total recapture for the Russian Federation of the whole of Ukraine. It was somewhat worrying that Western leaders did not seem to have a clear picture of their own, that difficult negotiations prevented a common front being developed expeditiously. However, the steep fall in the value of the rouble and of Russian stocks must have come as an unwelcome shock to the Russian leadership and given pause to people on both sides.

Farage: England for the English

Nigel Farage is quoted on Liberal Democrat Voice as saying:
“In scores of our cities and market towns, this country, in a short space of time, has, frankly, become unrecognisable. Whether it is the impact on local schools and hospitals, whether it is the fact that in many parts of England you don’t hear English spoken any more, this is not the kind of community we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.”

Well, I am old enough to have children and grandnephews and I started working in London umpty-thing years ago. The family home being on Merseyside, I put up in a hostel in Swiss Cottage for the first few months of a job in Westminster. I remember being excited and intrigued, not blimpish, by all the different accents and languages I came across on my journey to work, let alone in exploring the streets of the metropolis.

Seeing the films and reading the literature of the years between the end of the war and my entry into the world of work and the '60s, leads me to believe that there was probably more interchange between London and the continent then than there is now. Of course, there were many refugees from the Nazis still in residence here and the eyes of soldiers returning from Europe (some with continental brides) would have been opened. Garrisons had been established in occupied Germany which would not be wound down until the end of the Cold War - more interchange there.

We did well from migrants then and we are doing very well from EU migrants now. I don't believe we even have to try too hard to persuade these folks to learn English, if they don't already know the language - there are strong financial incentives so to do. Wrong target, Mr Farage.

Welfare cuts

John McDonnell MP, in introducing the debate in the House of Commons last Thursday, was honest in stating that the trouble in assessing disability payments was not just ATOS, but the Work Capability Assessment itself, introduced by Labour in 2008. For that reason alone, his criticisms of the present state of welfare reform as it affects sick and disabled people should be listened to.