Hand me the Pitchfork! Round Up the Angry Mob! Not.

I probably fit into the target group that the BBC think they are talking about when they say:

"The move away from some of the [Lib Dem]'s key commitments is expected to anger some Lib Dem activists."

They probably think I'll be marching pitchfork in hand down to the spring conference in Birmingham to set the Lib Dems back on the path of the things I've been fighting for, campaigning on, and speaking up for for ages, instead of them being shelved. They think I'm outraged by Nick Clegg's announcement of this morning. But you know what? I won't be.

Unlike Cameron or Brown who have promised things and now that times are tough say they will never happen, Nick is merely putting them on a shelve for the time being. What do you put on the shelve generally? A treasured book to read again later. An ornament or memento of where you've been or what you are. The shelve is there for all to see and the things upon it. However, if you bury something that is it gone from the mind, covered up all trace gone, as if it doesn't exist.

The BBC's chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg is also hinting that she thinks maybe Nick implied that we entered the 2005 election with too many spending commitments. I don't think he was. In fact if we had won in 2005 we wouldn't have to undo at this stage another 5 years of Labour's unfair tax regime in the first place, to pay for the recession, or for spending commitments.

So see that is the heart of our spending commitments first we have to raise national and local authority income fairly. That is still at the heart of what Nick has announced this morning. We have plans to make things fairer. The only problem is that Labour have left us with an awful lot more that needs to be paid for at the moment.

The Tory approach is to get that deficit cut down as fast a possible whilst giving the odd perk to the rich, and no advantage to those who can ill afford to.

Then you have the behemoth of Labour in the person of Stephen Timms, financial secretary to the Treasury, who said:

"Like the Tories, the Lib Dems are starting to realise their plans don't add up at all.

"Today, they're in disarray, making U-turn after U-turn and still failing to make their plans add up.

"And while they talk about fairness, they want to go even further than the Tories on scrapping Child Trust Funds that help provide for children's futures."

What he really means is:

"Unlike the Tories and Labour, the Lib Dems have realised their plans need to add up.

"Today, their honest, checking the sat nav but striving on towards their aspirations a little further off, when they will add up.

"While they talk about fairness, they want to go even further than the Tories by scrapping Labour's long term gaining Child Trust Funds to provide not for children's futures bit their presents."

Especially for the last bit as the money they would need from Labour to pay for tuition under the child trust funds wouldn't be needed under a Lib Dem government as those who are in the scheme are all at least 6 years away from acquiring it.

Only his Labour Rose tinted glasses won't let him see that being grown up about being honest about putting things on the shelve for now, until we can afford to take them down again and look at them properly. But then what would you expect from the party whose leader says let me get you out of this mess, without first owning up to any part of his in getting us into it.

Need to Get the Banks Lending Again

Figures released yesterday showed that the number of new business start ups in Scotland are down 16% on the same time last year. In Q3 2008 there were 4,598 in 2009 this was down to 3,861.

Speaking on this issue Alistair Carmichael MP said:

"These figures show just how hard the recession is hitting Scotland’s small business sector.

"Labour has effectively nationalised two of Scotland’s largest banks, but they have done little or nothing to get them lending again. This has left businesses struggling without the credit they need.

"Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling should be standing up to the bankers who did so much to cause the current recession. But instead they are letting them get away with massive bonuses while they leave Scotland’s small business sector high and dry."

There have been affects in and around West Lothian of how hard businesses have found it to secure capital from the lenders to keep afloat. There are more empty retail and production premises around now than in the lead up to last Christmas.

Speaking to some of the local retailers in Bathgate they have said that yes the turnover is affected as people are less willing to part with their money. But they are also finding it harder to get access to money from the bank to help either tide them over tough times or to expand stock levels or opportunities.

The two main banks that they use are the Scottish banks RBS and HBoS which are both owned by the people. The Chancellor has said the banks need to start acting like banks again, that means lending money to business to help aid the recovery. I know that Vince Cable is lashing out at the bingo hall banking practices that led to this mess, but Vince knows that there has to be some level of risk in lending money to business to ease our economy out of recession. The banks are not yet doing so, and so it is that new businesses are not able to get going to replace the ones that sadly have gone by the wayside.

False Hope is No Hope

This is a quickie just an initial reaction on Alistair Darling's budget, I'll go into more depth later when I have time.

During his speech earlier he said boldly this is a budget to 'offer hope for the future'. Whoops. Sorry Alistair if you are going to nick phrases from Barack Obama I'd expect you to at least give us realistic hope of what can be achieved. You're not promised to but a man on Mars before the next decade is out but lets get real.

The Times this morning said that you may say that recovery in 2010 might get as high as 1%, despite the average city view being 0.3%. Darling 1.25% is plainly laughable. Nobody is expecting it. Just think what will happen in May next year when everyone realises just how laughable as they go to the ballot box. But worse you are expecting it to get to 3.5% in 2011, which is optimistic even if we weren't still recovering.

But to also say that the recovery will have started before the year is out. Of course this is to cover the fact that we are the only Western economy who has put all our economic stimulus into the 2009 basket instead of spreading it over 2009 and 2010.

As a result we come to the the level of borrowing you expect over the coming years. OK bravely you announced that 2009 you expect £5bn more that anticipated for 2009 at £175bn. But then £173bn, £140bn, £118bn and £97bn over the next 4 years. With PSBR at almost 12% this year it would need you to recoup over 50% of all the recovery you envision to get that borrowing down that fast.

Don't know who did the maths but the figures don't add up.