Aberavon & Neath Liberal Democrats

No to a national database

2009-07-14T13:42:00.003+01:00

What has happened?

On June 30th, Alan Johnson announced that ID cards would be voluntary for British citizens. This meant the ditching of a scheme that would have made it compulsory for airport staff and pilots at Manchester and London City airports to have them, as part of the ID cards trial.
Previously, the Govt said they would be compulsory once 80% of the population had them.
Johnson was also forced to admit that the Govt had previously wrongly presented ID cards as a ‘panacea’ for terrorism.
Johnson did say he remained a supporter of ID cards and that the Govt was accelerating their role out. The pilot scheme currently being rolled out in Manchester (the city, not just the airport) will be extended across the North West next year.
However, those applying for a ID card or a passport (after 2011 supposedly, though this keeps moving) will automatically have their details added to the National Identity Register (which is what a lot of people oppose).
They are now selling ID cards as a cheaper, more convenient, voluntary alternative to a passport.
IBM has contracted to supply technology for ID cards which will last seven years, despite the possibility that a change in government could scupper the scheme.

What did the Tories say?

They accused the Govt of “an absurd fudge" and said it was “symbolic of a Government in chaos." They claim Johnson is against ID cards (and would scrap them) but that Brown is making him press ahead.
They then called an Opposition Day debate in the Commons on July 6th.
They had supported ID cards at the beginning but were now convinced that Labour couldn’t deliver the scheme. They had concerns about data security and said ID cards wouldn’t combat crime, terrorism or illegal immigration.
They also confirmed their opposition to the National Identity Register, which we tried to smoke them out on with an amendment to the motion.
They do, however, remain in favour of biometric passports.

What do we say?

“This is another nail in the coffin for the Government’s illiberal ID cards policy, which will soon be so voluntary that only Home Office mandarins seeking promotion will have them.
“Airport workers did not want to be guinea pigs for this deeply unpopular scheme, which has now been reduced to nothing more than a second-rate passport.
“These expensive and intrusive plans should be ditched now. The vast amount of money would be far better spent on something that will actually fight crime and terrorism - ten thousand more police on the street.”
We also oppose the register as well as ID cards themselves.
We have described the cards and register as a “technological solution in search of a problem.” Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean that we should.
It is telling that the Govt have ditched all plans for compulsory ID cards for anyone eligible to vote at the next election – we have described them in the past as having the potential to be a “laminated poll tax.”
There is also the issue of thin end of the wedge/mission creep/future Govts argument. The Govt claim that only certain information will be held and that ID cards won’t be necessary to access public services. However, it does not take a huge imagination to see Govt one day arguing the need to put medical records, criminal records, financial records etc on your ID card and making you have one to go to the library; access benefits; visit your GP etc. Then to all intense and purposes, they would be compulsory.
Our opposition to ID cards has been consistent and principled (unlike the Tories). People should not have to justify their identity to the state when going about their business. We would spend the money on 10,000 police.

What about foreign nationals?

ID cards are still mandatory for foreign nationals and are currently being rolled out to that group.
We oppose ID cards for foreign nationals. The Tories don’t. We don’t think that guests in our country should be treated differently from British citizens.
They are not going to solve terrorism – the Madrid bombers all had valid Spanish identity documents. Neither will it solve the problem of ‘clean skins’ (people without a terrorist record, but with terrorist intentions). Or crime – the police generally have a problem catching criminals, not identifying them.
Nor will it sort illegal immigration – employers are already required to do checks on worker’s immigration status but may unscrupulous ones do not. What we need is more spot-checks and prosecutions, not ID cards.

What does this all mean for costs?

No one really knows. There is little more murky in public finance terms than the ID card costings.
The Govt will charge people £30 for the card and for the cost of taking their biometric information (£28 is the rumour for that).
The Govt claim the total cost of ID cards and biometric passports is likely to be £5 billion over 10 years. But they claim that only £1 billion of this is for ID cards. They also claim that this will be claimed back by charging people.
However, as soon as the scheme becomes ‘voluntary’, then the cost of recouping the substantial overheads is spread among fewer people. They cannot surely now raise as much money as first thought.
We have always maintained that the real costs will be far, far higher – they don’t include any costs incurred outside the Identity and Passport Service (such as for example installing card readers in other locations); the Government’s record with large-scale IT projects is they tend to be far over cost and over time; and no one really knows how much this is going to cost until the Govt get further down the line with it, the LSE estimated in 2005 that costs could be anything up to £19 billion.

Irene who?

2009-07-12T01:50:00.002+01:00

The announcement of Irene James' retirement took many AMs by surprise, as they hadn't realised there was actually a member for Islwyn. Others felt that it was impossible to spend more time with her family and friends than she did already.

LibDems at Pontardulais & Pontardawe

2009-07-05T19:41:00.004+01:00

South Wales West Liberal Democrats will be out in force at the Pontardulais Show and the Pontardawe Craft Fair. Details nearer the dates.

Unfortunately, a clash of diary dates has prevented us showing as we had hoped at Pencoed (the Bridgend County Show) next weekend.

Transfer of Housing Stock ballot may be delayed

2009-07-04T13:21:00.003+01:00

We understand that the proposed ballot of transfer of Neath Port Talbot's council housing to a cooperative mutual has been postponed until the New Year. A special council meeting due to have been held on Friday 3rd July, which may or may not have been connected with the progress of the ballot process, was cancelled at ten days' notice.

On the one hand, this may allow the "No" campaign to build up a head of steam, especially if threats to haul councillors, who back it, up before the Standards Committee are carried out. It may also threaten some grants from the Welsh Assembly Government conditional on a ballot being held before a certain date.

On the other hand, it may push the date for a ballot beyond the next general election, after which a more intelligent and local government savvy Chancellor of the Exchequer will revise the borrowing rules, allowing Neath Port Talbot to hold on to its housing stock and meet the Welsh Housing Quality Standard.

Housing Stock Transfer: what is our party line?

2009-06-26T22:14:00.003+01:00

The short answer is: there isn't one (writes Frank Little). I believe that if Anthony Taylor, who challenged me on his blog last Thursday to state the Liberal Democrat position, examines Labour Party national policy, he will find that this is true of his own party, too. (That is not to say that there haven't been Labour party conference votes against it, back in pre-Blair/Brown days.)

The more finessed answer is that the Liberal Democrats recognise Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT) as just one component of a flexible housing policy. What we have always (from the time of the Thatcher Housing Bill which introduced LSVT) objected to are the outdated, skewed rules on local authority spending and ridiculous public borrowing regulations which load the dice against council investment in public housing.

Some Liberal Democrat housing authorities in England certainly have embraced LSVT, usually as a result of taking control from a Labour council which left its housing in a mess, from which only injection of commercial capital could redeem it.

We are certainly not in favour of well-run and financially stable housing departments being disbanded for ideological reasons. We resent the government bullying councils into holding ballots by fiscal measures or (in the case of Wales) by setting too-high quality standards.

The former leader, Derek Vaughan, and the council's senior officers made repeated attempts at a financial compromise which would have enabled Neath Port Talbot to retain and still improve its housing stock. WAG was intransigent. It is disingenuous to blame this on a Plaid housing minister in the coalition government. It is clearly the Labour government in Westminster which is pulling the strings.

The alternative to holding a ballot this year was a loss of at least one central grant. The least bad alternative on offer to retaining council stock was a cooperative mutual. That was the clear message from the council leader last October, and that was reflected in the Liberal Democrat councillors' vote then. Note that we only signed up to the ballot process, and to the alternatives to be presented to the tenants. We did not promise to campaign for one side or the other, and we certainly reserved the right to question details during the process.

I used the term "conscience" of Cllr Keith Davies' choice to support the "No" campaign. It would be more accurate to state that the difference between us is one of "judgment", in particular that of how much it would cost the council to raise properties to the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and what financial penalties would be imposed by the government if we didn't achieve a "Yes" vote. I believe there will be a large financial downside, Cllr Davies does not.

Note that neither of our public stances conflicts with the vote we cast in council last year. Since there is no official Liberal Democrat policy on LSVT, for or against, there was no need for Cllr Davies to notify the party of his campaigning for "No", yet he did so out of courtesy.

I am pleased to see that Cllr Taylor is an enthusiast for the cooperative mutual model of housing corporation. This, if I remember correctly, emerged at the grass-roots in Liverpool, probably before Cllr Taylor was born, as a response to the failed central planning of Liverpool Labour's housing department (and, of course, the private rented sector of the time). I don't know that the prime movers were Liberals, but they were certainly acting in the "bottom-up" manner of Liberal politics.

Cllr Taylor's enthusiasm is not shared by several of his Labour colleagues. They are viscerally opposed to losing control of council housing, as private conversations and some of their pointed questions at seminars show. The difference between us and them is that we can express our differences in public without fear of retribution from a party "Star Chamber".

Stock transfer ballot - group position

2009-06-24T17:18:00.002+01:00

Following Cllr Keith Davies's decision for personal and constituency reasons to support the "No" campaign, the Liberal Democrat councillor group decided today not to impose a "party line" on the issue. Members will be free to campaign according to their conscience.

Cllr Keogh joins Labour

2009-06-24T17:15:00.002+01:00

Word-of-mouth has it that Councillor Dennis Keogh (Ratepayer, Port Talbot) has joined the Labour group on Neath Port Talbot CBC.

Aberavon AM to stand down

2009-06-20T10:08:00.001+01:00

Dr Brian Gibbons has decided not to seek re-election to the Welsh Assembly in 2011. The BBC story is here.

Tory agrees with Hain on devolution

2009-06-17T09:33:00.002+01:00

See Glyn Davies's blog.

Phone Nick Clegg

2009-06-15T22:34:00.001+01:00

There is a phone-in on Radio 4's "You and Yours" tomorrow. More details on Liberal Democrat Voice.

Mick Bates AM to retire at next election

2009-06-15T13:21:00.002+01:00

The Wales Online report is here. We understand that he wants to spend more time with his family and on his farm.

Frank Little writes: I hope this resigning from the cockpit of daily politics does not mean that Mick is lost to party activity altogether. His contributions to Liberal Democrat conferences are virtually guaranteed to liven proceedings. Although his enthusiasm for wind power generation goes farther than I would, there is no doubting that he has given a major boost to green politics in Wales from a time when it was not as main-stream as it is now.

Labour leaders hanging on

2009-06-13T12:34:00.002+01:00

Rhodri Morgan has given himself a get-out clause. He said at the Assembly Elections that he would retire on his seventieth birthday. He has changed his tune. In case of a "force majeure", he will stay on and Huw Lewis AM has begged him to stay on beyond Autumn http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8086310.stm.

Now former Neath Port Talbot council leader Derek Vaughan has announced that he will not give up his Neath North seat until there is a general election to "save tax-payer money" on polling costs. We say that the real reason is to save an embarrassing loss of a council seat in a period when Labour is under constant attack.

All the signs are that a tired and discredited Gordon Brown will hang on to power until the law forces him to hold an election. That will be in June 2010. Do the math. The hard-working people of Neath North will have a lame-duck councillor for twelve months. How can Derek Vaughan work for his constituents in Brussels where he will be on a steep learning curve in the Euro Parliament?

We say to Derek Vaughan: do the right thing by democracy and the people of Neath North. Go now!

Make votes count press release

2009-06-12T10:24:00.002+01:00

"The Prime Minister's statement on democratic reform was not as bold as billed; in fact on electoral reform he has been far more timid than the circumstances demanded. There is a real urgency to implementing reforms, to restore public trust in MPs and in politics as a whole.

"Voters have shown they are impatient with the main parties, and want real change in the way we do politics. So why does the Prime Minister continue to dither on opening up the debate and on timescales for implementing electoral reform?

"Gordon Brown talks the language of quick change and ending the Gentleman's Club when it comes to expenses. But he fails to bring that approach to the other area MPs still self-regulate and is now under scrutiny - the way in which MPs are elected.

"Elections affect all of us. Decisions on how they are conducted certainly shouldn't be in the hands of the politicians, whether those on the National Council for Democracy or on the Opposition benches, whose jobs-for-life are at stake. Is it no surprise that David Cameron is leading the resistance to change: he and his party stand to benefit the most from the status quo. It is more of a surprise that Brown wasn't even willing in his statement to repeat the 1997 Labour manifesto promise of a referendum on the introduction of a proportional voting system.

"The Prime Minister talks about starting up the debate on electoral reform. But we've been having that debate for over ten years. In January 2008 the Government published as "a contribution to the ongoing debate" its long-awaited review of those proportional voting systems already introduced. The Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) was a system recommended by the Jenkins Commission back in 1998 after long and careful deliberations involving plenty of opportunities for public engagement and debate.

"There is still just enough time left for completing an open public debate and then holding a referendum before or at the time of the next election. The referendum would give voters the chance to register their feelings twice: once to get rid of a tainted MP in the General Election; and once in a referendum to choose whether to get rid of a rotten system and change things for good.

"Even after his statement [on Wednesday], Gordon Brown still has the opportunity to be bold and start exploring this referendum option; to show he is able to go beyond the self-interest of the political elite and give power back to the man and woman on the street."

MVC's Welsh campaigns officer, Owain Llyr ap Gareth, has an article in the Western Mail.

We still believe that STV is a better electoral system, in that it allows voters to choose between candidates of the same (or no) party. Nor do AV systems threaten "safe" seats. However, we can hardly object if the proposal of the Jenkins Commission is put before the electorate in a referendum. The commission was set up as the result of an agreement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats before the 1997 general election, and was chaired by a distinguished member in turn of both parties.

First thoughts on the European Parliament elections

2009-06-08T07:02:00.003+01:00

Of course, the results for Liberal Democrats in Neath and Aberavon were disappointing. We were not alone, though. There was a small rise in the percentage vote in Wales but in England it was down, and, across Europe, Liberal parties suffered losses (though we don't seem to have lost MEPs in Britain). It looks as if ELDR no longer holds the balance of power in Brussels/Strasbourg. However, the rise in the size of the Green bloc means that the Conservative and Socialist groupings will still not have things all their own way.

In both our constituencies, the BNP came within one hundred votes of Liberal Democrats. This is not, I would suggest, due to my talking up the BNP by drawing attention to their dangers or mocking their electoral communications, but as a result of the party targeting Neath. Their two leafleting campaigns clearly achieved the desired publicity, including good coverage in the Evening Post, colour photographs and all.

Labour bucked the national trend by topping the poll here and pushing the Conservatives into third place, just ahead of UKIP. Plaid Cymru will draw satisfaction from being a very good second.

I hear Labour spokespeople blaming the exposure of MPs' expenses for their poor showing overall. Sorry, but that won't wash. Tories were just as mired in that scandal as Labour - indeed, the most headline-grabbing claims were by Conservatives - yet they topped the poll in Wales and did well in England.

And, finally, Welsh has a gender-balanced representation in the EP. Kay Swinburne of the Conservatives and Jill Evans of Plaid make up for Derek Vaughan for Labour and John Bufton of UKIP.

Frank Little

Update: The full figures are now available on the council's web-site as pdf files: http://www.npt.gov.uk/PDF/Elections_EPE2009_results_Aberavon.pdf for Aberavon, and http://www.npt.gov.uk/PDF/Elections_EPE2009_results_Neath.pdf for Neath.

Why do the Tories resist PR?

2009-06-07T11:16:00.003+01:00

We in Wales already realise the benefits of even a nobbled system of proportional representation to the Conservative Party. Without the top-up list, they would have had no more than one representative in the first Assembly, when there was clearly widespread support for the party across Wales. The party can now point to five AMs elected directly from a constituency, but would it have achieved this success without the credibility which eight AMs elected from the regional list in 1999 gave them? One of those was, and continues to be, Nick Bourne, their leader.

Now comes a beautiful example from last week's English local elections of first-past-the-post benefitting Liberal Democrats to the detriment of the Tories. This table shows the results from Cambridge City wards:

June 2009	Candidates
Party	Stood	Elect	U/O	Votes	%
Conservative	14	0	0	7153	21.7
Labour	14	2	0	6930	21.0
Liberal Democrat	14	11	0	12121	36.7
Green	14	1	0	5159	15.6
UKIP	3	0	0	475	1.4
Independents and Others	2	0	0	1181	3.6
Totals	61	14	0	33019	37.4

I reckon that means that LD have 0.91 seats per 1000 votes, Labour 0.29, Green 0.19 and UKIP & the Tories zero.

Look at it another way: in Cambridge it takes only 1,102 voters to put a Liberal Democrat in, but nearly 3,500 for Labour and infinity for the Conservatives!

Frank Little

Labour finish behind Monster Raving Loonies in Cambridgeshire

2009-06-05T20:33:00.003+01:00

St Ives

Result summary

Candidate	Party	Votes
Reynolds, Kevin Antony	Conservative	2553
Pegram, Dennis Roy	Conservative	2307
Hodge, David Frederick	Liberal Democrat	1543
Waters, Robin Sherwood	Liberal Democrat	1412
Jug, Lord Toby	The Official Monster Raving Loony Party	566
Allen, Richard John	Labour	362
Richards, Angela Louise	Labour	343

Dennis Roy Pegram (Conservative) and Kevin Antony Reynolds (Conservative) have been elected to serve the St Ives Electoral Division

Swing per Party

Conservative: +9.18%Liberal Democrat: -0.27%Labour: -8.5%

[From http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/democracy/elections/elections2009/candidatesandresults/ ]

Huhne claims Tory MEPs endanger UK citizens

2009-06-02T18:18:00.002+01:00

The Conservative's attitude to the European Arrest Warrant, and to the interchangeability of criminal records within the EU, would threaten the safety of UK citizens, according to Chris Huhne.

Chris writes: "Conservative MEPs voted against the establishment of the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS), which standardises the format of criminal records in Europe and allows them to be exchanged quickly between police forces and high risk employers, such as airports.

"It beggars belief that anyone would want to make it more difficult for us to check whether people coming to this country are dangerous criminals."

In South-West Wales we have already seen the effect of the lack of background information on a worker from Poland, who committed a serious sexual offence here.

And, as Nick Clegg argues, in an article by Nik Cohn, "so instinctive is Tory antipathy that Cameron would rather be soft on crime than friends with European allies.

"The Europol police agency has helped break up paedophile rings in the UK, Clegg says. The European arrest warrant allowed the fast-track deportation to Britain of Hussain Osman who had fled to Rome after trying to blow up a tube station. Ordinarily, Tories are against paedophilia and terrorism, but the 'Euro' prefix is enough to make them damn both the agency and arrest warrant."

See more here and here.

The Observer backs LibDems for Euro elections

2009-05-31T16:24:00.002+01:00

The closely-argued leader column is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/31/european-elections-liberal-democrats.

Lib Dems say: Take Back Power

2009-05-30T21:39:00.001+01:00

[Shamelessly pinched from richardbaum by Frank Little]

Nick Clegg has taken a strong stand on cleaning up Parliament and leading the call for a complete overhaul of our political system. Last week at Prime Minister’s Question Time he challenged Gordon Brown to reform our electoral systems. Now even Brown’s own ministers are echoing Nick’s call.

Nick is making the case to:
- Give people the right to sack MPs
- Stop all big party political donations
- Elect the House of Lords
- Make the voting system fair - so that governments can’t just get all that power and all that money with only a minority of you voting for them
- Put an end to self serving politics and put you back in charge
- But Nick can’t do it all on his own. He needs our help.

Labour councillor misuse of the Web

2009-05-27T11:52:00.002+01:00

Before local Labour activists complain too loudly about their opponents making use of World Wide Web pages to attack them, they should consider the activities of David Boothroyd, a Labour councillor in London, who has been using various aliases in a deception aimed at Wikipedia among others. He has now been found out and action taken by Wikipedia. Mark Pack has the story and links.

Liberal Democrat Euro candidates commitment to glasnost

2009-05-25T17:11:00.002+01:00

Liberal Democrat MEPs are already the best at revealing their expenses and allowances. More of them, in proportion to their numbers, reveal their claims on their web-sites than any other UK-based party MEPs.

All candidates have now gone one stage further, and made the following commitment:

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT CODE OF CONDUCT FOR MEPs

The Liberal Democrat European Parliamentary Party (LDEPP) is committed to the highest standards of public service.

Each of its Members undertakes to ensure strict observance of the European Parliament’s Rules governing the Payment of Expenses and Allowances to Members (PEAM).^¹

In addition, they agree to meet a common measure of transparency in order to ensure their accountability to the European Parliament, to the UK Liberal Democrats and to their electors.

This Guidance Note shall be appended to the Standing Orders of LDEPP.

Declaration of Interests

In their official Declarations of Financial Interests, LDEPP Members will declare whether they are members of the Parliament’s Voluntary Pension Scheme.

Members will declare whether they employ as assistants, or pay as service providers or paying agents, members of their family. In such cases, the level of payment shall be shown within bands of € 10,000.

General Expenditure Allowance

As specified under PEAM Article 13, the Allowance is a monthly lump sum intended to meet expenditure resulting from 'activities in their capacity as Members not covered by other allowances'. Inter alia, the Allowance covers the following items:

Travel and ancillary expenses within the UK
Office management and running costs
Purchase or rental of office equipment
Telephone and postage
Office supplies
Purchase of publications
Internet
IT hardware and software

The allowance may not be used to cover personal expenses or to finance subsidies or gifts of a political nature. It may not be used to contribute towards the Voluntary Pension Scheme.

An annual account shall be made of Members’ use of the Allowance. This account shall be certified by an independent, professionally qualified accountant, who shall have received a copy of this Note and of Parliament’s Rules. The audit statement must demonstrate compliance with the Rules of the Parliament, and will be filed with the delegation's Whip. A summary of the account shall be published on each Member’s website.

Secretarial Assistance Allowance

PEAM Article 14 establishes the rules for the employment or engagement of assistants.

All staff employed by LDEPP Members must have a contract of employment in accordance with the law of a Member State.

The names of assistants and their job titles should be published, with their consent, on each Member’s website.

The names and functions of service providers should be published on Members' websites.

Travel Allowance

Under PEAM Article 10, Members are entitled to an allowance to meet expenses incurred in connection with travel (outside the UK) undertaken in the performance of their official duties. Members shall publish on their website the total claimed in the preceding year.

Daily Allowance

Under PEAM Article 11, Members are entitled to a subsistence allowance for the days or part days on which that they are present in the Parliament. Members shall publish on their website the total amount they claimed in the preceding year.

1 Shortly to be published on the European Parliament's website.

Spontaneous voter endorsement

2009-05-23T21:01:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Liberal Democrat Voice for posting the picture of the endorsement which local council candidate David Kendall found when campaigning in Brentwood, Essex. The note begins: "I would rather remove my nipples with a rusty tin opener than vote Labour or Conservative".

A similar message appears to be reaching our people campaigning to achieve a Welsh Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament.

Motions to Council

2009-05-23T20:02:00.002+01:00

It seems that Rhondda Cynon Taf ruling group does not like too much expression of views across the chamber at full council - when, of course, the press is likely to be present. Non-Labour groups will henceforward be restricted to only two motions per year, reports Cllr Mike Powell.

There is no such restriction on questions and motions* to Neath Port Talbot council, but perhaps our ruling Labour group, basking in the glory of so many quango-written congratulatory reports, feels more secure than the embattled RCT people.

*Constitution, PART 4, RULES OF PROCEDURE 9. and 10., if anyone wants to check.

Telegraph now on dodgier ground

2009-05-22T12:37:00.002+01:00

Frank Little writes:

Apparently, the Telegraph is now trying to pin charges of misuse of expenses on Liberal Democrat MPs Sir Alan Beith (because he has declared he is interested in the Speaker's chair) and Jo Swinson (because she is in the forefront of moves to modernise Parliament. According to Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice:

Sir Alan Beith

The Telegraph’s story about Sir Alan relates to a rented flat in London he shares with his wife, former fellow Lib Dem MP [and former president of the party] (now a Lib Dem peer) Baroness (Diana) Maddock. You can read the story here. I assume the Telegraph is publishing now because Sir Alan is one of the early favourites to occupy the soon-to-be-vacant Speaker’s Chair.

The couple point out that they have tried to stick to the spirit and letter of the expenses rules by Sir Alan claiming only half the rent, and Baroness Maddock claiming only half her Lords allowance. She notes: “We have tried to claim half and half. I have always claimed half of what I could claim for and Alan only claims for half the rent. It isn’t an exact science. We tried to solve the rent issue by claiming for half in a system that isn’t perfect. We could have sat down and we could have worked out the half much more accurately perhaps, but we did our best. We have always been in favour of everything being out in the open.”

More to the point, at least as far as I’m concerned, this is a rented flat - so any improvements made will not benefit them financially, a stark contrast with some of the Telegraph’s genuinely serious allegations.

Jo Swinson

There seems (at least to my eyes) to be even less of a story here, as featured in the Express. Apparently some cosmetic items – for which Jo did not claim – appear on receipts alongside other items for which Jo has made expenses claims. This is all the excuse the Express needs to make the usual casually sexist swipes about Jo being “known at Westminster for the attention she pays to her appearance”. As Jo has long published her expenses in full on her website, I think we can safely file this story in the file marked ‘Desperate’.

Statement by Lord Rennard

2009-05-21T14:40:00.001+01:00

First, I’d like to thank all members for everything that you are doing to
help our candidates in the European and local elections (if you have local
elections in your area). I am sure that they appreciate your support at a
difficult time in politics. If you are standing yourself, then obviously
I wish you the best of luck!

My reason for writing is that I have decided to make the current election
campaigns my last as Chief Executive. I discussed this with Nick some
time ago and I have given notice to the Party President that I will stand
down as Chief Executive at the end of the Summer.

I want to be able to work more flexibly in future whilst of course
continuing to help our party advance. I believe that I will be better able
to do so without the administrative burdens of being Chief Executive and
running the party's day to day organisation.

For family and health reasons, I have needed to change the way in which I
work. My wife Ann has supported me enormously in all my work. But since
she retired a few years ago after more than 35 years teaching, we wanted
to have something of a more normal life outside the Westminster bubble.

This has become more important to me as I have struggled to maintain good
diabetic control with the rigours of a very demanding lifestyle. This has
proved to be increasingly difficult whilst carrying out the role of Chief
Executive at HQ and around the country.

I decided that this Summer would be the best time for me and for the party
to make a change. I am letting the party know this now, so that it can
take the necessary steps to appoint a new Chief Executive in the Autumn.

My major work as Chief Executive in recent years has been to help create
new structures for the party organisation and help to recruit an extremely
strong professional team to work for it. The role of Chief Executive has
therefore changed significantly since I undertook this role six years ago.

By the Summer, we will have had crucial local and European elections and I
believe that we will do well in them. I am also confident that Nick Clegg
will prove to be the most successful Leader that we have ever had. I am
immensely proud of the roles that I have played so far in securing the
steady advance of the Liberal Democrat cause. Our values and beliefs have
never been more important than they are today. I will, of course,
continue to support the General Election campaign, but not as chair.

Finally, I would just like to thank all members personally for all the
support that I have had whilst working for the party and I look forward to
continuing to work with you in future.

With all best wishes,
Yours sincerely

Chris Rennard

PS I thought about letting you know this after the current round of
elections, but having taken the decision and informed the Leader and
President, I wanted you to hear directly from me and to fully understand
why I have been trying to make lifestyle changes and will make an even
more significant one later this year.