Heard some students chatting on the bus to the office after work tonight.  From the way one was talking she seemed to be under the misaprehension that Lib Dems were responsible for Labour’s cuts to University funding and their introduction of Tuition Fees.

Crazy really because with Lib Dems representing university seats in Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and Sheffield amongst others, clearly it is in their interest to be the most protective of R&D funding and the most scathing of Labour’s tuition fees.

It’s not often we just post a video link in the hopes that people will listen, but if you ever wondered ‘why Liberal Democrat’ this is the video to watch.

Nick Clegg’s speech to the Lib Dem Conference

Lib Dem Housing Spokesperson, Cllr Iain Donaldson, has written to the Housing Minister calling for local councils to be allowed to decide where and when they will use new licensing powers.

Cllr Donaldson stated that “The current system whereby local authorities must apply to central Government is cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive and does not meet the needs of either local authorities or long-term residents. ”

It also fails to give any flexibility for local planning to tackle the problems created as landlords move their aspiration from one side of a street to another or just round the corner where the whole process has to start over again.”

In Manchester we are seeing established communities being destroyed by the disproportionate number of houses in multiple occupancy and the dire shortage of family housing.”

Intervention in the development of the City Council’s allocations policy by Lib Dem Housing Spokesperson, Cllr Iain Donaldson has ensured that former armed services personnel will receive priority under Manchester’s new housing allocations policy.

Cllr Donaldson stated “Our armed services personnel place themselves in great danger, day in day out, for us. It is absolutely right that when they return to civilian life they should be afforded every opportunity and help we can give them.”

The allocations policy which is to be considered at today’s Executive Meeting provides for a number of changes to the way in which social housing is allocated in the City and raises a lot of questions and concerns many of which will only become clear when they are put into practice. Particularly it introduces for the first time a preference for those in work or ‘adding value to their community’ over those who are not, and a ceiling of £ 60,000 of family income for those applying for social housing in the City, above which it is expected people will have to secure property in the private sector.

Cllr Donaldson questions “Whilst I welcome some of the changes in the policy, there are definitely areas that need to be addressed. For example where a family with an income of over £ 60,000 needs support for adaptations that would be too expensive to be achieved in the private sector, will they still be prohibited from applying for social housing under the new policy?”

“I am also concerned that the question of overcrowding is clarified. The policy as written appears to re-define overcrowding as being in need of three bedrooms more than the nationally accepted standard for overcrowding requires. I can not believe that this proposal is correct or even what was intended by the people drafting this document.”

Dear Iain,

Today I launched my pamphlet, Lost labours, with Nick Clegg.

As somebody who has a long involvement with the Labour party, including editing the New Statesman magazine, I have been able to give a frank and honest appraisal of a decade and a half of New Labour. And in it I explain why I can no longer support them, and am instead turning to the Liberal Democrats. You can read a more condensed version in an article I wrote for the Guardian here.

Alongside one million other voters, I deserted Labour in 2005 in protest at Iraq in favour of the Liberal Democrats, the only party to oppose the war. My decision to back the Lib Dems in 2010 is based in a more fundamental appraisal of Labour’s record together with a positive assessment of the Liberal Democrats’ platform.

New Labour in office has had one all-consuming purpose: re-election. Since 1997, their every working day was based around the task of prolonging their term of office. It filled in the ideological hollow and justified ever-encroaching authoritarianism and a pandering to the right on criminal justice and other areas of social policy. In contrast, the Liberal Democrat analysis of the failures of the deregulated market has been consistently, and painfully, accurate. Nick Clegg’s tax reform plans, taking four million low paid workers out of tax altogether, are the most redistributive of any party. And the Liberal Democrat approach to criminal justice, human rights, foreign and social policy is close to mine.

People can only for so long be exhorted to hold their nose, to vote for a party they feel has let them down, simply because the alternative is worse. It is deeply damaging to politics to resort perpetually to the double negative. The Liberal Democrats offer a positive, radical and different vision. That is why they have my support.

Best wishes,

John Kampfner

PS Do forward this email to any Labour-leaning friends you may have; as Nick Clegg argued last year, now is the time for Labour’s lost army of progressives to join us in common cause.

We have learned from Council Officers that Labour’s controversial plans to introduced a “lottery” system for allocating Hackney Licenses are on ice until after the General Election.

The change is proposed after an Industrial Tribunal upheld a complaint against the Labour Council by a woman refused a license, the Council’s legal officers have said that the current system must change as it discriminates against women, who hold just 2-3% of the current Hackney Licenses.

Lib Dems are proposing a hybrid system, mixing a random element with the current waiting list system, amended to take into account maternity leave.  The Lib Dem alternative clearly doesn’t discriminate and takes into account legal advice, but Labour voted it down.

This is typical Labour.

They are getting a lot of heat on this, so they have put it on ice until after May when they hope to bring it back and push it through.

The Lib Dems have succeeded in getting Manchester City Council to change its policy to offer financial help to new homewatch schemes.

Previously all local authorities in Greater Manchester helped new home watch schemes by paying for Home Watch signs for the lampposts in the area - except for Labour run Manchester where residents had to find the money themselves.

Now, chief officers at the Town Hall have agreed to fund the signs in future, after Lib Dem Cllr John Cameron raised the issue at a recent Council meeting.

Local campaigner, Bill Fisher, said “Homewatch schemes are so important in fighting crime that they are recognised by many insurance companies who will lower premiums in homewatch areas.  John Cameron’s work on this issue will mean that local Homewatch Schemes can now make an immediate visible impact in the area they serve.  This is fantastic news. “

The local Lib Dems have called for an urgent inquiry into the winter gritting fiasco in Manchester.

Labour run Manchester City Council left local roadways and pavements without gritting for long periods of time, leaving them treacherous for motorists and particularly pedestrians.

Local Lib Dem campaigner Bill Fisher said “We were inundated with phone calls from residents complaining that local roads and pavements were not gritted for long periods of time.  Some were not gritted at all.  Lessons must be learned for the future.”

John Leech MP added “Whilst the City Council cannot control the weather, they do need to plan for it.  It is clear that their planning was wholly inadequate.”

The number of school children missing lesons in the City of Manchester is the worst in the country according to recent official government figures.  New figures show that the city is ranked worst out of all 150 councils.

Nearly 1 in ten pupils are skipping school in Manchester, which is twice the national average.

Local camapaigner, and parent, Bill Fisher said “These figures show that things are not improving under Labour.  No wonder over half of pupils fail to get good GCSE’s when education bosses are not taking a tough enough line on truancy.  This is a damning indictment of Labour’s failure to drive up standards in our education system.”

The Labour leader of Manchester City Council will keep his chauffeur driven car after his comrades in the Labour Party opposed a Lib Dem plan to end the contract.

Local Lib Dem campaigner, Bill Fisher, said “Given the current recession, people will rightly see this as Labour wasting public money on chauffeurs and posh cars.”

Liberal Democrat Group Leader, Cllr Simon Ashley, added that “A chauffer driven car for the leader of the Council is not something Council Tax payers should be paying for.  The Liberal Democrats alternative budget for Manchester would have reversed this decision, and we will make a manifesto committment to revese this decision if we come to power in Manchester.”