Lib Dem candidate celebrates A14 might not go ahead because Lib Dem City council wont support it. – Madness

On twitter at 4:30pm on the 29th April, Lib Dem Belinda Brooks-Gordon states:

“I am totally delighted that the A14 massive expansion may not go ahead. SUCCESS ACTION”

This comment is so daft from so many different perspectives I don’t know where to start.

How can a responsible politician in any way be pleased about the numbers of individuals being killed, the huge numbers of people injured and the many millions of pounds this overcrowded road is costing the people of Cambridgeshire and beyond?

From a commonsense perspective it is mad. From a compassionate perspective it is cruel. From a business perspective is is extremely damaging.

It seems that only a Lib Dem perspective can justify such a ridiculous statement. How anyone could vote for an individual with these views is beyond me. Amazingly, Cambridge City Lib Dems also think like this and have refused to support the current initiative to get this road upgraded.

Lib Dems – the case of the missing manifesto

I thought I had seen something on twitter about a “rousing talk by @timfarron to launch Cambridge. Libb Dem County manifesto by Belinda Brooks- Gordon.

https://twitter.com/belindabg/status/312000272002064385

When I asked Kilian Bourke about the Lib Dem manifesto he led me to believe their wasn’t one and I can’t find it anywhere.

If Belinda attended the launch of the manifesto, as she claims in the link above, where is it? Who else attended? Perhaps they can help?

No, they can’t. They would not would they? I don’t believe any party would pretend to launch a manifesto if they don’t have one ……….. Would they?

Certainly not the straight talking, honest, never grab credit from anybody else county Lib Dems, surely not.

Hmmmmm

If anyone can help and point me in the right direction I would be grateful and very relieved.

Vote for councillors who care about what really counts – not the ones that care about the day we count your vote.

I have seen an extraordinary email from a Lib Dem Cambridge city councillor kicking off about the election process in May. Something sinister perhaps? No, sensible impartial decisions made by the responsible returning officer to count the votes the following morning rather than throughout the night.

I’d like to think that most people want to make sure elections are first of all fair and open as well as being delivered in an efficient and cost effective way. The County Council election which is being held on May 2 this year and votes counted the next day, will be no exception.

Which is why I am astonished to find that one Lib Dem City Councillor wants tax payers to stump up extra money so he and his colleagues can get the results of the County Council election in the early hours.

This petty petulance is what puts voters off from getting involved in local politics. It is an example of councillors putting themselves before the communities we serve.

Counting elections the next day is not something new, indeed the last two County Council counts were done the day after and so was the recent Police Commissioner count.

But it seems Councillor Colin Rosenstiel, someone who clearly believes the world should revolve around him, would rather tax payer’s money be diverted from looking after the old and vulnerable so votes can be counted while the majority of people are asleep.

I’m guessing most tax payers would prefer their hard earned money go on frontline services rather than be told at 2am if they have a new councillor. I’d like to think that news can wait until the next day.

I think this is a case of himself and his City Council colleagues forgetting that Cambridgeshire is mainly a rural County where it is much harder and expensive to have a late night count.

So in a nutshell I am told the count is happening the next day because its cheaper; it helps our rural areas; it means we can use the same people as worked on polling day; we can deal with postal votes and we have done it before. All very sensible.

But in an hysterical and inaccurate e-mail our Lib Dem Councillor makes wild claims that ballot boxes may go missing as if we live in a third world Country. I would hope he has more faith than that in his own City Council officers who will be looking after the boxes for Cambridge.

He goes onto claim the electorate would lose confidence in the electoral process. Really! I think voters are more likely to lose confidence if they see a councillor stamp his foot like a petulant child wanting his own way and not what is in the best interest of the people we serve.

If you are exasperated as I am with this kind of petty politics then please don’t be turned off on May 2. Please vote for the councillors who care about the things that really count not the ones that care about the day we count your vote.

He has form:

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Councillor-in-row-with-police-on-train.htm

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Cambridge/Councillor-who-obstructed-999-medic-must-go.htm

Brave faces – Lib Dem Conference

It is not a happy time for the Lib Dems but I expect they are putting on a brave face at their conference.

They lost two cabinet ministers, David Laws and Chris Huhne, for wrongdoing.

Thankfully they lost the referendum on voting reform with little public support.

Their U-turn on tuition fees has become an exemplar of betrayal. How can anyone in Cambridge ever trust them again?

And of course their former chief executive is still wriggling on allegations of sexual harassment.

Locally they have sought to steal others credit for success, have been seen to be financially incompetent and seem unable to make even the most obvious decision.

So how can it be that a party that started out as a group of well meaning individuals has lost it’s way? I would also like to make it clear that locally their are still some well meaning individuals but they lack leadership.

I think their are some real structural party problems that the Lib Dems have not dealt with that makes their problems inevitable.

They do not value leadership or personal responsibility. Every decision is taken by committee. This means every horse they set out to design becomes a camel and no one and everyone is to blame.

Within the Lib Dem party, Leaders are not empowered to lead.

This means they are not able to be decisive, often miss the moment and probably worse are forced to make the wrong decisions by a group who are ill informed but experts on social engineering and ideals.

High minded ideals are great, but when confronted by the reality of life, often have to be modified. There is nothing that I can see within the Lib Dem machinery that can manage reality.

Time for them to return to pressure group politics and leave the levers of power to those that can lead.

Lib Dem mixed messages

It seems that the Lib Dem opposition leader at SCDC proposed a budget amendment to freeze council tax on the grounds that it was morally wrong to put it up.

The same Lib Dem, who is also a county councillor, was content for the county council Lib Dems to agree to put up council tax. Two faced or what?

Kindersley: morally wrong to put up tax when so many people are struggling to pay #scdcmtg—
Chris Havergal (@ChrisHavergalCN) February 28, 2013

Lib Dems – don’t know when to stop spinning

Last night on BBC radio Cambridgeshire Susan Van de Ven, Lib Dem county councillor, decided to challenge the guided busway usage figures. Usage has been fantastic and continues to grow.

I’m not sure why anyone would want to rubbish an important piece of infrastructure that is extremely well used but I guess the Lib Dem negative campaigning machine rumbles on.

The trouble for Susan was that she was just wrong. Her facts were incorrect. I guess numbers are not the strong point of Lib Dems as can be seen by all the errors being made by them in Cambridge City finance dept.

More embarrassingly for Susan it was not us that had to point out her facts were wrong. It was the Managing Director of Stagecoach, one of the bus operators that made the point.

This is the same councillor who went out of her way to tell users of a bus to Wisbech that we were withdrawing subsidies to it and had them all worried, only to have it pointed out that the bus she was on was not affected.

As politicians we all have a duty to be accurate. But we also have a responsibility not to scaremonger, not to spin to mislead the public and we should try to act in the best interests of the general public not our own electioneering needs.

A poor show.

Listen to the show here.

Discussion starts at 6 minutes in http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p014wf1h

Lib Dems – fixated with selling Shire Hall

THe main plank of the LIb Dem amendment, at full council, was to sell Shire Hall for a sum unknown and at a time unknown. It seems they want to stuff all the staff from Shire Hall into Castle Court with little regard. Not sure where the debating chamber would go but perhaps as they don’t win many debates they would want that to go as well.

Here is an idea. Why don’t the Lib Dems at the County council talk to the Lib Dems on the Cambridge City council and convince them to sell the Guildhall !!!!! Much more valuable real estate and right in the center of the city. Oops, its all gone quiet.

Making things up – spinning – guess which party won’t be using this picture on their election leaflets

Lib Dems break trust again – Julian Huppert

Today is a great day for Cambridgeshire with the announcement that the Tour de France 2014 is coming to the county for the start of the third stage of the race.

A huge amount of effort has gone into this from Councillors of all parties and officers at both the County and City Councils who have worked with our colleagues in Yorkshire. They deserve the real credit for the way they have put their bid together.

Over the next few months we will be sorting out the route, maximising the economic impact of Le Tour and ensuring there is no additional financial cost to City and County taxpayers.

However, all of this could have been put in jeopardy due to the selfish actions of one man.

Last night, the local Cambridge MP decided to confirm this story to a local newspaper – ahead of a strict embargo – breaking all the rules and protocol which had been set down by the Tour organisers.

I have to wonder what the motives were behind this decision. Was it to claim the credit for the work of others, see his name once more in the paper or show that he cannot be trusted with confidential information?

Either way, it would have taken very little effort on our MP’s behalf to have waited until today to welcome Le Tour, as per the wishes of the organisers. Clearly this simple task appears too much to ask of someone who claims to represent Cambridge but spends most of his time promoting himself.

After his actions last night, I have to ask whether I can speak with our MP in confidence in the future. For his behaviour and scant regard for the wishes of others seem to be forgotten as soon as he sees the chance to see his name in lights.

It is incredibly sad that on a day of great news for us all, we are left feeling very frustrated by the actions of a man who jumps up and down like a giddy school boy whenever he is told a secret.

County Council Network – Norman Lamb Lib Dem minister

Attending the CCN executive committee. Norman Lamb speaking about care and support from the Dept of Health perspective.

Norman is saying some very sensible things. He believes that hospitals being funded by activity is not fit for purpose anymore for anything other than routine surgery. I agree.

He believes that more joined up activity, between health, local authorities and GPs is essential, I agree.

I had the opportunity to ask some questions. The first was ” I agree with everything you have said so far but …… when will all this take place? The cliff edge is approaching faster than you think and the drop is much bigger than you may expect. We need action now. His response was positive but I’m not convinced he has the authority or will be able to gain traction to make things happen in the timescales required. Still, great that he gets it.

I was also able to ask that the rules on funding hospitals be relaxed away from funding by activity. Money spent on “repairing people” would be better spent on preventing people needing treatment. He agrees. I offered up some ways of doing this.

I was able to speak to Norman afterwards. I offered up Cambridgeshire as a county of innovation and a willingness to explore new ways of working. We both agreed that following up later would be helpful.