Sarah Teather to Leave the Lib Dems

Sarah Teather MP, branded by #ThingsElliottSays as one of the worst MPs in Parliament, has decided the Lib Dems are not for her anymore and will not stand in her seat of Brent Central at the next General Election.

Sarah Teather will leave the Lib Dems in 2015.

I'm not surprised Sarah Teather has left the Lib Dems because politically she is not really close to social democratic philosophy or to what the party actually stands for. Really Sarah belongs in the Labour Party, it's just like a lot of Lib Dem voters they're not fond of the trade union links or the Iraq war. So like many Lib Dem voters that have spurned the party for Labour once in government, Sarah has followed.

But why now? Of course the obvious answer is that she wants to create controversy for Nick Clegg and challenge party positions on Economy, tuition fees, nuclear power, an independent nuclear deterrent, a 50p top rate of tax, welfare, fracking and immigration (all of these are up for the vote in the up and coming Lib Dem conference). The fact that her seat of Brent Central has a 1500 majority is a factor too, she will obviously lose to Labour at the next election.

Many Lib Dems however believe that Sarah Teather is actually a careerist and has herself instead of what is right and wrong as her first priority. This can be shown quite well when she didn't vote for several bills on welfare and education, despite being a government education minister. This in itself is not self interest, she did this on a point of conscience. But she refused to step down from her job afterwards as she was just interested in continuing with her career. She was thus disgracefully sacked by Dave in the next government re-shuffle.

When she returned to the backbenches she was obviously not very happy and started causing trouble by not backing government bills. This in itself could be seen as something of noble principle. I think it would be wrong to say that there is no element of this, but according to many Lib Dem activists this was an act of spite. Her voting against the Equal Marriage Bill, despite saying she supported it days before, was evidence of this to many Lib Dems and she lost lots of respect in the party. 'She was a careerist without a career' said a Lib Dem activist to the Guardian and so with no future prospects and a seat she was almost certainly going to lose she has decided to leave the Lib Dems and cause more trouble for Cleggers.

Sarah has lied on many things not just gay marriage.

Sarah Teather started out as the bright young thing of the House of Commons after the Brent East by-election of 2003. She will now leave the same house in disgrace. It would be unfair to say that she has no principles, but it is clear that her career as a politician was more important to her. This is not the type of politician our country should be run by and thus she has the title of 'Possibly the Worst MP in Parliament'.

In da House, but not for much longer.

Weekly Poll Lowdown

If you could advise Dave on whose seat from the Cabinet table should be broken and thrown out it seems your choice would be Michael Gove, the Education Secretary. Although Gove is clearly the loser in the poll, the vote was quite close amongst all other Cabinet Ministers, most picked up 10% or 3% of the vote. The only person without a single vote is Philip Hammond, I'm sure he is very pleased.

Which Major Conservative should Dave sack from his Cabinet?

William Hague	7%
George Osborne	10%
Theresa May	10%
Philip Hammond	0%
Ian Duncan Smith	10%
Chris Grayling	7%
Michael Gove	23%
Eric Pickles	3%
Jeremy Hunt	13%
Ken Clarke	10%
Sir George Young	3%
Dominic Grieve	3%

Total votes: 30

The decision to sack Michael Gove from the Cabinet is poor and beyond belief (his 1st position is probably the result of sneaky left wingers). In my opinion, closely followed by Eric Pickles, Michael Gove is the best minister around the cabinet table. His education reforms are the best thing that has happened under the government. His drive to make sure education is improved drastically across the country in our global race, which we must compete in for people to have jobs and prosperity, is going very well. The quality of education is up under this government. The ideas of free schools and academies are really working because they offer choice to students and parents. Wisbech people can see how well Gove is doing locally with Thomas Clarkson secondary school, which used to be the worst school in the County. Now after 1 year of officially being an academy it is right at the top being one of the best schools in the County. 

 Michael Gove is doing really well as Education Secretary.

Michael Gove probably came top in this poll because he is reviled by the Left. Gove's idea of choice and making every school a good school insults every fibre of left wing dogma. Under the last Labour government it was simply get 5 Cs at GCSE level and that's it. To add insult to this idea GCSEs were inflated so it looked like there were improvements, which is shown clear to be not the case when looking at how much Britain fell in the international rankings. The Left believes students education should be kept at an easy level where the Government looks good but the students do poorly. The results are that for most pupils their education is poor and they become low skilled workers or on benefits and thus vote Labour. What a good system if you want to win elections, not a good system if you want to aspire and have a better life.

 Labour lied when they said their focus was on improving Education.

 

So who should go? To me there are many contenders in my mind. Jeremy Hunt hasn't be a great health secretary and represents style over substance as he is much of a blank page. I would have preferred Andrew Lansley to stay as Health Secretary. Arguably Andrew is very bad at presentation but he was made a scapegoat by the Government and Lib Dems for the health reforms which was a very good policy. It is however hard to sack Jeremy Hunt for not doing much when the Government needs health to not create anymore big issues.

A triumph of style over substance.

George Osborne hasn't done amazingly because he has stuck to a Brownite consensus in economics. Yes, he is tied by the Liberal Democrats but he hasn't pushed for cuts to taxes where it is plainly obvious growth and greater government income would be achieved. We really need a more liberal economic chancellor to bring real and sustainable growth. However, Getting rid of Osborne would seem like a reversal of government deficit reduction policy, which should not happen under any circumstances as it is bad for market confidence (that's 'markets' as in all businesses and people across the country and not a few stockbrokers in the city left wingers). 

Alistair Darling and George Osborne follow similar policies. Osborne is so much better than Ed Balls though.

William Hague has a strong case against him for being partially behind the disastrous foreign policy of the last two months. Why on Earth did he think that invading Syria was factually a good idea when we can only create more problems and solve none? William Hague is starting to look much like a statesmen during the easy times but when the pressure is really on bad decisions are made. This is not a good quality for a Foreign Secretary considering the international bust ups that need defusing.

Not going well for William Hague at the moment.

But the person who I would sack is Ken Clarke. Ken is someone with great gravitas and someone I actually like a lot. But his policy ideas are terrible. His handling of the justice department was woeful. Ken didn't reform the ECHR when he had a great chance and changed the emphasis of the courts and jails from deterrence, justice and punishment. Both of these were awful moves. At this moment Ken is advising Osborne on the economy. I certainly wouldn't take advice from the man who still wants to join the Euro and become more closely integrated in a protectionist racket. 

I love Ken's cigars but not his policies.

So Dave if you're reading, Sack Ken.

Please Vote in the next poll on the Sidebar.

Liberals Win in Australia

 

 Well done to Tony Abbott for bringing a Liberal victory in Australia.

Economic Resurgence and Roadblocks

I don't think anyone in the Conservative Party is in any doubt that if we're going to win in 2015 the main reason for this will be the economy. We've got to make sure the economy is healthy or well on the way to being so by 2015 or we have no chance of victory. Since my last economic post the picture has got a lot rosier but what are the big roadblocks to a stronger economy.

UK economic pigs on the increase.

The good news is that we are predicted to grow more than anyone thought this year. The OCED, who said that we would grow at most by 0.8% this year, has massively increased their prediction to the UK growing by 1.5%. Indeed it gets better when you look at the annualised rate of growth which is 6% meaning we're growing faster than France, Germany and America (pretty good going). Of course we shouldn't be too optimistic because these are predictions we must wait for the results until we starting patting each other on the back and celebrating an end to a depression. 

The UK in real terms is out preforming Germany and probably will continue to in the future.

This growth is also pretty sustainable, built on the increases from all sectors of the economy. Factory production is seeing a boom that could only be compared to one that took place 20 years ago. Car production is soaring as well (which Top Gear has tooted a lot). The Service Sector is really getting some pace now on the back of increased high street sales (despite threats from the interweb and out of town shopping). Construction figures are the best they have ever been for 6 years. And most importantly Lego has seen a 17% rise in sales. All sectors of the economy are growing, which, apart from last month, has only happened in 1991.

Lego is on the increase.

The best news however is twofold. Unemployment is down and will continue to fall. Expect an increase in the 1.3 million jobs that that have been created in this country since 2010, a good record for the Conservatives in government. The growth in the economy also means tax revenues are up for the government which is good for deficit reduction because the shortfall of tax has led to the deficit falling less than expected by the Chancellor in 2010. Perhaps we will pay off more of the deficit than expected?

All areas of the economy are growing creating more jobs in ares like the car industry.

But this actually leads onto the start of the bad news because the days when cheap government lending is over. The small window we had to pay back or debt with the least cost has virtually closed because yesterday the cost for the UK government to borrow reached over 3%. This is an international rather than a purely UK problem and is an inevitable shift where bankers and other countries realise that governments are not very good at paying back loans. So now each Pound in debt is a bigger weight on the future of the UK. 

Interest Rates are likely to be at an all time low for a very long time.

Also we may see a problem caused by the Bank of England keeping the rates of interest at 0.5% for 3 years (despite some caveats). This move is good for stability as businesses have a pretty clear picture of what to expect of the future, but it's not as brilliant a move for lending as people may think. Although we have started to create more wealth with economic growth, we have a capital problem still in the UK. Cutting taxes would aid this partially but we really need to be encouraging people to save so their money can be leant out, this can be done by raising interest rates. Although a low interest rate will make people want to borrow more it is impossible to do so when there is very little money. If I was Governor I'd start thinking about raising interest rates sometime in mid to late 2014. 

Inflation is something to watch out in case there is a big increase.

Inflation may become a big problem too because the government is going to start trying to get rid of as much as this debt as possible by decreasing the value of money. It has already done this quite a lot with almost 25% of the deficit that paid off by printing more money. With more quantitative easing possibly on the way, the government increasing energy bills and interest rates remaining at a standstill inflation is likely to increase. Bad for business and for people's buying power. Inflation is not something that any government wants to increase and especially before an election which Labour will fight on the cost of living.

Cue Union Flag piggy bank surrounded by money.

So there we are, lots of good news about growth, profit, jobs and deficit reduction but things to watch out for in the next coming years and possibly some mistakes made by the Bank of England and the Government.

Also, what do you think to the new look of the Blog? If you like it then good, if you don't well you'll just have to put up with the blue, red and white combined with a new logo.

Ed Davey Comes To Nottingham

Joy of Joys Ed Davey, the Climate Change and Anti-Energy Secretary, visited Nottingham University today. Ed was interested in the research carried out by the science bods in Nottingham on methane and cattle, although it is worth pointing out termites produce more methane.

 Ed Davey blowing into a bag.

There has been some sort of fair and display for scientists UoN and Ed and the media have come to see what is going on. One of the fun and games demonstrations was blowing into a bag that can detect how much methane you are producing. It turns out Ed produces more methane than the average person. I thus tell Ed, for the sake of humanity, stop breathing.

I'm not a big fan of Ed Davey. His time as Energy Secretary has set out a system where we are being swindled on our energy bills.  By 2020 the average household (which currently pays £1460 on gas and electric) will be paying £1883.40. This will get worse by 2030 because then we'll be paying a whooping £2920.00 to heat our homes and run the TV. At the moment 4.5 million households live in fuel poverty, obviously this is only going to increase. 

Energy Bill increases are a swindle by the government (see http://energyswindle.org/ to voice your concerns against them). 

Our energy bills are unnaturally raised by the government so the government can subsidise inefficient* power sources which are supposed to combat climate change. So it means that, in the greatest ever technological year for the human race, the government is bucking the trend and putting more people into fuel poverty. More suffering people and more dying pensioners, all because of government intervention in free markets. 

Did you know because of the raw materials from across the globe and the 1000 tons of concrete underneath each windmill, wind turbines produce more CO2 than they save.

The Government often defends the bill increases by saying a portion of the money goes to help people in fuel poverty, buying insulation and other things for example. This is true but when you think about it this is a bit stupid because this fuel poverty prevention is mostly being spent on fuel poverty caused by the government subsidising wind turbines and solar panels. There is a cyclical pattern developing: the government subsidises inefficient energy - the government increases bills to pay for this - fuel poverty increases as a result - the government launches a scheme to combat fuel poverty - the government increases bills to pay for this - fuel poverty increases as a result. This will only end when people say we will not tolerate the government subsidising inefficient energy.

 Even Her Majesty the Queen is facing fuel poverty.

Ed Davey could help, and cut carbon too, by really getting fracking going. He has been a delayer for our energy revolution which has already happnened in the US of A, where fuel bills have gone down by over a third. This is because fracked gas, despite massive over regulation, produces so much profit for companies it is an amazingly efficient fuel source. And what's more for those real carbon counters, not those fake anti-capitalists, gas produces far less CO2 than our main power sources of coal and oil. All good then.

 Says it all really.

But Ed disagrees because he has signed up to the left's Green Agenda which is actually a new vehicle to deliver a socialist economy. Subsidises are good for Lefties because it gives them control over the UKs energy source and therefore control over the people (the main objective of any left leaning government).

The fracking protestors deliberately tried to stop people working at the Caudrilla HQ to close down the business.

If you want evidence of this just look at the last Green Movement protest about fracking you can plainly see this. What happened was a militant attack against an 'evil capitalist private' business because it is freeing the people by reduce energy bills. These people don't want a green economy, they want a state controlled economy. Their lack of interest in the facts around fracking and the environment show this more. Fracked gas, as previously said, produces less CO2 than the majority of energy sources we used today and  it has been categorically proved not to pollute water sources by independent scientists. 

I don't personally think Ed is as mad or extreme as the fracking protestors; but he has signed up to the Green Agenda which is only about increasing state involvement in the economy to control people's lives. So Ed, next time you come to Nottingham and it is term time, I'll be there presenting to you the inconvenient truth.

 Ed Davey is a bit mad, kick him out.

* For those in the Green movement who say renewables are not inefficient the mere fact they need subsidising means they are because otherwise people would be falling over themselves to build the magic energy making windmills and solar panels without government help.

Breaking News: Labour Re-Shuffle Leaked

Its a good day for Ed Balls MP, as he is finally Labour leader (and every other minister too). This is just another example of how weak Red Ed is and how the Shadow Chancellor controls him. But perhaps This is a good move for the Labour Party because at least Ed Balls' plan of borrow till the country drops is what the trade unions want. GMB may reverse its decision to cut funding of the Labour Party by £1.1 million. Or maybe it will be a Balls Up.

New CF Poll

A new CF Poll has been launched by Mo Metcalf Fisher, or Lord Mocroft.

 Mo busy surveying CFers.

Mo's last CF survey  focussed mainly on the CF elections of earlier this year and Blogging. The results of the poll was good news for CF Chair Oliver Cooper who has increased support in CF since the time of his election (see http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/exclusive-polls-show-cf-chairman-more.html).

 Mo's last poll was a vote of confidence in Colonel Cooper's work as CF Chair.

Mo's new poll focuses on the policy of the Government. It will be interesting to see what CF thinks of issues such as war in Syria, Immigration and the Chances of Winning a Conservative Majority in 2015. You can take Mo's survey here http://kwiksurveys.com/app/rendersurvey.asp?sid=je5vvs19uylmy5q210064&refer=t.co .

 Mo may soon find himself in a job with Ipsos Mori.