Europe and animal welfare

Thanks to the Danish presidency's weekly newsletter, I learn of a European conference on animal welfare. It "will launch the Commission’s Strategy on Animal Welfare 2011 – 2015". The second day of the conference, which comprises two parallel streams on enforcement of animal welfare legislation and the progress of research on animal welfare, seems to be significant.

More questions about charities

Conservative AM Darren Millar has raised the possibility that charities other than AWEMA overseen by the Welsh Government may be mismanaged. In this BBC report, he claims to have letters making such allegations.

In First Minister's Questions, Carwyn Jones responded to an enquiry from Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies as to whether one required a Labour Party card to obtain a public position in Wales, with a reference to the Nolan Principles and bluster that before devolution Wales had become a dumping ground for failed Conservative politicians. The First Minister may well have been factually correct, but he didn't answer the question directly.

There is video coverage here of Wednesday's debate on AWEMA called by Peter Black for the Liberal Democrats.

Emlyn Hooson

We had known for some time that Lord Hooson was not well. He had made it known when we were celebrating the anniversary of local hero Sir Samuel Thomas Evans that he was not able to make the journey to Neath Abbey. It is still sad to learn of his death. There is a short appreciation here on Liberal Democrat Voice.

My memory of Emlyn Hooson was as a very engaging speaker at Lloyd George Society weekends. He had a great fund of stories about Liberal Party and other political figures. I believe he had written a memoir of his predecessor in Montgomery, Clement Davies, but was beaten to print publication by Alun Wyburn-Powell.

He was the author of "Law and Order in a Civilised Society" and "The Case for a Bill of Rights", both of which appear to be out of print.

Ed Balls' VAT cut

My first response to the shadow chancellor's calling again for a cut in Value Added Tax was: what to? 19%? After all, that would have been the level if Labour had been returned in 2010.

For an expert analysis of the inutility of a temporary cut in VAT, see Mr Dillow. I would only add that the last temporary VAT cut was more trouble than it was worth for small enterprises, who had to change price lists, computer systems etc. and then change them back again.

I am glad that Balls has recognised the value of bringing forward the coalition's pledged exemption of the first £10,000 of earnings from tax. However, he then spoils things by suggesting that it be paid for by extra borrowing. What happened to Labour's tradition of afflicting the wealthy? Could it be that the party is trying to regain financial support from city institutions? Our proposal is to recover the loss of tax revenue from either removing a pensions benefit for wealthy individuals or a variation of the "mansion tax". Neither of these would jeopardise UK's standing in the bond market, which an increase in borrowing would.

Political Independence

There was one of those interesting coincidences on "Sunday Supplement" this morning. There was a trail of Peter Hain's attack, at the Welsh Labour spring conference, on Independent councillors as closet Tories. Later in the programme there was a discussion of the career of S.O.Davies, possibly Wales' most famous Independent MP of the mid-twentieth century.

Davies was of course an Independent Socialist, and his independence was not of his own volition. He had been deselected by the Labour Party before the 1970 election but retained Merthyr anyway. Even before this, he had lost the party whip in the Commons many times. Wikipedia lists three of the occasions - apparently there were five expulsions in all, a world record for a parliamentary representative - but gives reasons for only two. It is a pity that this morning's discussion was dominated by Davies's idealisation of Soviet communism. (He had visited Russia in 1917 and was clearly impressed by the early aspirations of the revolutionaries. Sadly, he was not disabused in the 1930s as Muggeridge was.) S.O.Davies should be remembered positively for his work for his constituents. He also warned about the Aberfan spoil tip. If more of the Labour Party had stood out against the government line the disaster may have been prevented. After it occurred, he fought consistently for compensation.

There is an established pattern of deselection by the Labour Party followed by retaining a seat on the basis of personal reputation among Independent councillors round here. If this fact is acknowledged at all by the top table in Cardiff this weekend, they will no doubt accuse the Independents concerned of disloyalty, to which the latter would no doubt retort: what about the party's loyalty to us?

I believe that the "closet Tory" gibe is also inaccurate. There certainly was a time when the Conservative brand was distinctly politically toxic. It was noticeable that Conservative councillors, even in the shires, were calling themselves Independent as a result of the backlash against Thatcherism. However, that ceased to be a burden in the latter days of Blair and virtually disappeared under Gordon Brown. Conservatives are ready to identify themselves as such again - except those who have stuck with UKIP - and are still winning the occasional council by-election.

There is another cause of antagonism to party labels and that is the disaffection with party politics generally, in the wake of the expenses scandal* and, I have to admit it, English and Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs in the coalition breaking their promise to the NUS to vote against an increase in tuition fees. Those people whose prime motivation is to contribute to their local county or community council are increasingly put off by the occasionally vicious party political campaigning and infighting. I believe that most would be comfortable in the Liberal Democrats, with our core beliefs in local decision-making and in fairness, but it is their choice to stay outside the party battle. I certainly would not accuse them of deception.


*It is annoying that the exposure of the misuse of MPs' expenses is increasingly being cited by the gutter press as a justification for phone hacking, suborning public officials and other illegal acts. In fact, it was good hard-working journalism, using the Freedom of Information Act, by Heather Brooke which broke the story. 

Labour's mp3 player stuck on repeat

Harriet Harman on Radio Wales today repeated the tired old incantation: "Cutting too far, too fast, tax bankers' bonuses." Well, most Liberal Democrats - and thousands of council workers in England, most of them in Labour local authorities - would agree with the "too fast" bit. I am sure that Vince Cable's timetable for reducing the deficit would have been acceptable to international lenders.

But "too far"? The coalition government's cuts are less than envisaged by Alistair Darling (see diagram), Labour's last chancellor of the exchequer. To argue for smaller cuts now smacks of hypocrisy.

Besides, we don't have to look beyond Italy, never mind as far as Greece, to see how the money markets punish those governments who are seen not to be serious about trimming their deficits.

The bankers' bonus tax is pure gesture politics. It was admittedly a useful on-off for Alistair Darling. It might in the future deliver a slap on the wrist to those traders not shrewd enough to avoid it, but it is not a serious long-term tax-raiser in the same way as the coalition's bank levy is. And, as Lorely Burt, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Party Committee on Business, Innovation and Skills points out:
"The sheer hypocrisy of Labour to point the finger on bankers' bonuses is staggering. Labour presided over the biggest boom in bonuses this country has seen, from £3.1bn in 2001 to £11.5 billion in 2007. At the same time, they sat back and knighted the financial speculators who led this country to the brink of economic collapse."

Postscript: Tristram Hunt and Caroline Lucas on "Any Questions?" tonight cited the United States as an example of a nation where economic growth has resumed and unemployment has begun to fall, in spite of a massive deficit which the President and Congress have not seriously trimmed. But America is a special case which no other country on earth could emulate with impunity.

Farewell St Dunstan's, welcome Blind Veterans UK

It is a sign of the times that the name "St Dunstan" does not have the resonance it did when many of us were younger. One cannot argue with the charity's decision to change to "Blind Veterans UK" which conveys its aims directly. One other side-benefit is that that distasteful Noel Coward joke will lose currency.

Whatever the name, the demands on the charity continue to increase. As fundraiser Kirsten Munro pointed out in a recent letter, "Growing numbers of ex-service men and women are now experiencing age-related blindness, and younger soldiers are still returning home with eye injuries sustained in current conflicts. We anticipate that this year we will have record numbers of veterans using our services."

There is a Welsh connection in that one of the charity's three support centres (the other two are in Sheffield and Brighton) is in Llandudno.

Barbara Thompson: Playing Against Time

A Film about Parkinson's Disease and Music
Directed by Mike Dibb, with Barbara Thompson and Jon Hiseman.
Dibb Directions Production for The Wellcome Trust.

To be broadcast this coming Sunday, February 19th, on BBC4

If you wonder whether you have heard Barbara Thompson's music, I would point you to the sound-track of ITV's "A Touch of Frost" featuring David Jason.

Update 2012/2/16 : Barbara Thompson & Jon Hiseman spoke on Radio 4's "Midweek" yesterday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01by7br#synopsis