Are We a Democracy in Disguise

The worrying news of the arrest and questioning of Damien Green, the Conservatives' Shadow Immigration Minister, over Home Office leaks yesterday raises serious questions about the execution of the anti-terror laws that Labour have brought forwards in recent years.

All through the process there has been concern raised that such draconian measures in the wrong hands could lead to major concerns over the democratic process. But who would ever have thought that those wrong hands would actually be those of the Labour party. A party that themselves were often under investigation for communist leanings, as any reader of Tony Benn's diaries will be aware. As Chris Huhne the Liberal Democrat Shadow for Home Affairs said:

"Receiving information from government departments in the public interest and
publicising it is a key part of any MP’s role. This is the most worrying
development for many years, with the potential to shift power even more
conclusively from Parliament to the Government. It is also extraordinary
considering Gordon Brown himself as Shadow Chancellor received and publicised
many leaked official documents."

When the civil rights of an opposition Member of Parliament to carry out his role of scrutinising are threatened because of information he may or may not have become privy to how can we effectively have a parliamentary democracy? Are we any better than that Zimbabwe? As David Davis put it on the Today programme:

"None of this put in any way national intelligence, national security, or international relations at risk - yet we end up with a situation that is in some way reminiscent of Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, with an Opposition spokesman being arrested for nine hours. It is extraordinary, frankly."

Where is the government moving the line to? Are they deliberately trying to hinder scrutiny? If so, what do they have to hide?

There are a lot of questions about such legislation being used against a legislator and this latest incident means it is definitely time for the powers invested in these areas are properly addressed. This is just another step along the wrong path where too much alleged need to protect is impinging on civil liberties to go about as normally as possible.

The "Colonial" Times

Picking up my daily read this morning I was horrified to see on the Times front page the sub headline (since not searchable in the online archive):

At least 125 dead in Bombay [sic] violence spills into second day.

I'd not picked up yesterday's paper as I was walking to the newsagents on a day of when the express bus pulled up at my bus stop, so it may well have been the same yesterday. However, over 10 pages 7 of news, the leading article, the opinion piece of Maria Mistra and even the letters page, every single mention of Mumbai (the official name of the city since 1996) it is instead called Bombay.

Clearly the Times is still living in colonial Times.

Update: In the comments DG has tried to excuse the Times by saying they have used this because most British people now the city as Bombay. This is not much of an excuse as the Times being a broad street is generally read by the upper socio-economic groups. This is especially true when the equivalent MSM The BBC, The Independent and The Grauniad are all using Mumbai. Even the tabloid press the Daily Fail, the Scum* and the Daily Express have not deemed it necessary to so dumb down. The Times stands alone in its ignorance or deliberate editorial policy of using a rejected name of foreign imposition for the native name of the city making such sad news headlines over the past couple of days.

*As a Liverpool fan I had to break 19 years embargo on reading the Sun to check out their website for this piece.

Water Strike

Staff at Scottish Water will be the next public sector workers to strike over pay when they walk out for 24 hours at midday.

An agreement equivalent to a 3% rise over 15 months was agreed in September backdated to April. While this is within the public sector guideline it is not keep up with inflation, the consumer price index was 4.5% in October (the EU average was 3.7%) down from 5.2% in September and the Retail Price Index was 4.2% for October down from 5.0%. The RPIX which excludes mortgage payments was at 4.7% for the same period.

So while the employers at Scottish Water have stuck to their government directive on pay increases it clearly is a case that public sector pay is not pushing inflation but is sadly falling behind on that score. Maybe Labour really need to redress this target figure.

So employees are continuing to be crushed by the increasing prices and by not having additional money come their annual pay reviews to even hope to catch up.

Goodbye Woolies

If you were to look very carefully at the back of my shaven head you would see two scars. One of this happened when I was three as I slid down the step outside Woolworths in Bangor as my grandfather was looking after me and my baby (at the time) brother.

Well today Woolworths and MFI (upon how desks and surrounded by whose bookcases I prepared for the 2005 General Election) have both gone into administration. There was talk earlier in the day that the Government would wade in to bail out Woolworths but like an unlucky cricketer the edifice of the UK's High Street has lost its wicket one shy of its century. Now Woolworths 30,000 employees and 20,000 people covered by its pension fund, ,which has a £100m deficit face uncertainty.

Meanwhile MFI who had enjoyed a rent holiday in an attempt to stave off administration have been unable to turn things around and over another 1000 retail employees face redundancy. However, 261 employees were laid off with immediate effect by Galiform, the joinery firm who previously owned the company but are now one of the landlords.

VAT Cuts Favour the Rich More than the Poor

Darling has carried on the trend of being Dooh Nibor a reverse Robin Hood that his predecessor had at the Treasury. Darling had made much that the poorest pay a greater percent of their income in VAT that the wealthiest.

While this is true a bigger proportion of that is taken up by the VAT on fuel which at the 7.5% rate is already under the 15% VAT level, giving no benefit. An even greater proportion of their income also goes on zero rated necessities such as food again giving a negligible effect. The Financial Times is reporting that Robert Chote of the Institute of Fiscal Studies is pointing out that low-income households will not benefit so much from the VAT cuts if they are considered as a proportion of spending.

Yet again Labour are stealthily giving greater tax breaks to the rich than to the poor. Indeed many of the poorest households would have been better off with an income tax cut rather than a VAT cut as this would have given them cash in their pockets, which they could then of used to buy more of their necessities rather than getting a bonus on many of the luxury items that many have already have to cut back on buying due to the credit squeeze.

Hat Tip to the Treasury's Webmaster

The new idea of save now pay later which the government is going under may well be about to face a stealthy VAT increase. Hat tip to Guido via Peter Black.

Whilst the press release with the pre-budget report stated that the level would return to 17.5% from 1 January 2010. Their website had the additional line:

"and subsequently increase to 18.5% in 2011-12"

Now putting on my ex civil servant hat I would expect that despite denials that this was ever part of the plan it had to have been there in the original proposals and someone forgot to check the copy handed to the webmaster to publish. Maybe it was a photocopied piece which didn't copy a crossing out and the margin note/scribble:

"Not for release yet."

Or maybe it did and we've all been done a public service in finding out Darling's true intentions. Brown may have talked prudence, but he wasn't saving, or cutting the nations credit card bill. Now we've been told that the tax cuts that are being made will eventually be followed by tax hikes, watch out for VAT being just another one of those.

Notes: The author is aware that many last minute changes to key Governemnt documents are made up to the last minute possible before issuing due to have spent a number of years doing just that whilst working in a Civil Service department at Stormont. He is therefore not surprised that an different draft may have been used on the website, though it may be ommitted from the official release it does not exclude the fact that this may still be policy.

Sorry Darling I Haven't Got Time

Alistair Darling has rather inconveniently made his pre-budget report not just at the start of the week (my busiest period at work) but also at the start of a week when something new is also getting rolled out. Therefore at present I'm unable to give the details of yesterday's offering my full attention, at least for now.

I would recommend my readers to take a trip to Lib Dem Voice, James at the Two Doctors, Malc in the Burgh or Jonathan Calder for some diverse critiques of the PBR.