Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, talked to Swindon Labour Party members in Broadgreen last night following an afternoon meeting with representatives of business and local Councillors.

Rachel emphasised how important Swindon was for the economy – and how much she was looking forward to Labour retaking the Council in May 2012, and the two parliamentary seats in May 2015.   She focused on economic issues – in a week when new figures showed we were on the cusp of another recession, when debt had passed £1trillion, when youth unemployment had passed  26% and had doubled in Swindon in the past year.  Borrowing was a staggering £158 billion more than the Tories had planned.  And why?  Well they blamed it last year on snow and the royal wedding; now they blame it on the Eurozone – but its their own blinkered ideology which places cuts to pensions, to small businesses and to famility policies before creating jobs and creating wealth.   She explained Labour’s 5 point plan for jobs and growth, and how well it had been received by business representatives she’d met in Swindon. Politics was about choices – the Tories had chosen to protect their friends the bankers and preserve their bonuses.  Labour had chosen to target jobs and growth.

Questions focused on the disastrous state of the health service, tax evasion by big business, why the finance sector had been preferred to productive industry, and why bonuses and greed couldn’t be controlled by the Tories or Lib Dems.   The audience were left full of questions about the failure of the current Government and wishing Rachel well in her new and demanding role.

Caption: Rachel Reeves and Jim Grant (Labour Group Leader) (Courtesy of O’Brian Media)

Ed Miliband said yesterday “David Cameron should be building alliances. The UK went into the summit without them and the outcome showed we lacked influence.“ Douglas Alexander added:  “David Cameron’s isolation is a sign of weakness not of strength. Britain this morning is more isolated than at any point in the 35 years of British membership of Europe. It is not in Britain’s national interest for decisions to be taken without us even at the table and it’s a direct result of David Cameron spending more time negotiating with his own backbenchers than with our European partners.”

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Just a quick reminder that you can find Swindon Labour on the following social media sites and keep up with the latest news from the Labour Party in Swindon and contribute to the political discussion! Just click the links to be taken to the relevant pages.

Facebook: facebook.com/swindonlabour

Google+: https://plus.google.com/b/101220093966528608711

Youtube: youtube.com/swindonlabour

Twitter: twitter.com/swindonlabour

Flickr: flickr.com/swindonlabour

The Swindon Labour Group Leader, Councillor Jim Grant, has called on Swindon Borough Council’s Conservative administration to delay the approval of a deal with a new mystery Wi-Fi investor until more detail is given as to how the Council will get back the £400,000 originally loaned to Digital City.

JIm Grant said:

“Though it is good to finally see that the Council is actually doing something with Wi-Fi, this report raises more questions than it provides answers. If they decide to approve this report, it would show that the Conservative administration has failed to learn from their mistakes in the past by approving things without being open and transparent to all Council-tax payers and Councillors about what exactly is being approved.

The central question that needed answering from this report was how the Council intends to recover the £400,000 loan it made to Digital City. The Tory Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council seem to have chosen to ignore the fact that this £400.000 is public money. At a time when the Council is being forced to cut essential public services, and when families in Swindon are feeling the pinch of the government’s harsh economic cuts, £400,000 is not money we can do without. The people of Swindon want to see that money recovered and put to genuine good use in our community, not squandered further by the irresponsible actions of Conservative Councillors Bluh and Perkins.  The only reference to recovering this money in the report is a comment that the Council has the potential to receive this money back over 5 years, depending on the new company meeting its sales targets; however there is no mention of what these sales targets are.

There is also no reference to the new company’s name, no mention of how the new company is going to roll out the new Wi-Fi network, and no clarity given on the role Digital City’s other shareholders will play in this scheme. I am therefore calling for the approval of Cabinet’s decision to be delayed until more detail can be given on how the Council is able to answer these questions.”

The Labour Group is moving a motion of no-confidence on the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council at the next Full Council Meeting on Thursday 22^nd of September at 7pm.  The Cabinet report can be read here.

Swindon Labour is deeply worried about the impact of the Health and Social Care Bill.  It will be will be voted on next Tuesday, and there is still time to email your local Swindon Conservative MPs, Justin Tomlinson and Robert Buckland urging them to vote against this profoundly damaging and divisive legislation.

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Today probably sealed the fate of London – sooner or later its going to be flooded!  The Conservative Group of MEPs voted against a proposal today to increase the European emission reduction target to 30%.  So much for Cameron pledging to make the Conservatives the greenest party ever!?

By the narrowest of margins the European Parliament rejected a motion to toughen the EU’s emissions-cutting target from 20% reductions by 2020, compared with 1990 levels, to a 30% cut.  The scientific evidence of climate change is compelling, and the predictions have been conservative if anything.  If there is to be any possibility of keeping the global temperature rise below two degrees then a cut by 30% on 1990 levels is the minimum acceptable.

More than 70 businesses, employing 3.8 million people and turning over €1trillion – have expressed their support for the 30% target.  A target which is vital for the EU’s energy security and economic interests.  Europe’s future prosperity depends on a low carbon economy and this vote was a key opportunity to promote principles of green growth, and for the EU to take political leadership on these issues at a global level.

Despite Swindon Labour writing to all Conservative MEPs in the SW they voted with UKIP to keep existing targets – and actually proposed amendments which would have reduced the targets.

Why has nothing about this been in the British media?

Baroness Royall, Shadow Leader of the House of Lords talked to Swindon Labour Party members this Sunday at a garden party in Rodbourne.  She congratulated Swindon members for winning 4 seats at the May elections and welcomed the possibility that Swindon would have a Labour Council in 2012.

One year in from the first budget she pointed out just some of the failings of the Tory led Government:

• Wasting up to £3 billion on a reckless top-down reorganization of the NHS, opening it up to uncontrolled free-market forces (while Labour would focus on protecting frontline services, improving patient care and holding Cameron to his promise to increase NHS funding)
• Launching into an economic plan which is hurting and not working with cuts too far and too fast, zero growth in the past 6 months and rising unemployment (while Labour would focus on getting people off the dole and into work as the best way of reducing the economic deficit).
• Cutting police officers across England by 12,500 and police funding by 20% (while Labour would protect police numbers and give them the tools to keep our communities safe from crime and anti-social behaviour).
• Forcing families to struggle under the strain of rising inflation, higher VAT, cuts to tax credits, cuts to pensions, and a freeze on child benefit and public sector wages; at the same time as Councils are forced to inflict cuts to Sure Start centres, libraries and bus services (while Labour would work with public council staff, community groups and trade unions to find ways to keep services going in these difficult times).
• Cutting the ladder of opportunity which young people used to have to climb to a better future by scrapping Education Maintenance Allowance, the Future Jobs Fund and trebling tuition fees (while Labour believes in the “promise of Britain” – i.e. that the next generation will do better than the last – and that this is a promise for all, not just the privileged few).

Many other issues were discussed, including House of Lords reform, where she criticized Nick Clegg’s plans to put off reform of the House of Lords till 2025 (!) and was sympathetic to David Steel’s private member’s bill which would bring immediate changes in four important areas:  a) reducing the numbers of peers by introducing a retirement scheme (the Tories have introduced 120 new peers in the past year!); b) ending entry into the Lords by heredity by ending the sometimes ludicrous by-elections whenever a hereditary peer dies;  c) establishing an independent appointments commission for new peerages – thus ending “cash for peerages” scandals;  d) automatically expelling any peer sentenced to one year or more in prison, as already applies in the Commons.

John Healey (Shadow health spokesman) talked to Swindon Labour Party members on 2nd June and took apart the Coalition plans to ‘reform’ the NHS.  Make no mistake, he said,  this is “the biggest upheaval in the health service  since its inception.  Is not really about giving powers to GPs and increasing efficiency – its about privatizing the NHS and demolishing Labour’s legacy.   And you’re hardly hearing a word about this from the Tories, or the Liberals, or the press“.

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As a responsible Leader of the Opposition, it is my job to ask challenging questions of the Conservative administration’s actions on behalf of Swindon Borough Council. On occasion the answers to my questions are met with acceptable answers; however when I raised questions on why Swindon’s Tory administration was spending £1.7 million each year and racking up an overall debt of £45 million on the Wichelstowe development, the answers I received were inattentive at best, with no willingness to answer my straightforward questions.

For those who didn’t get a chance to read last week’s Swindon Advertiser article; following the housing developer, Taylor Whimpy, nearly going bust during 2008’s global housing market crash, your local Tory administration agreed to take control of putting in the infrastructure in the Wichelstowe development. This has led to Swindon Borough Council racking up around £45 million worth of debt, with the Council’s intention of making up this money  by selling off the land following the development’s completion.

However with property prices remaining in a slump I have genuine concerns whether the Council’s plan to sell off Wichelstowe in the next couple of years and make a profit for Swindon Council-tax payers,  is realistic. That is why I am calling on Swindon’s Tory administration to develop a Plan B for the Wichelstowe development. This is the responsible thing to do as the last thing Swindon Council needs right now is a debt crisis when we are having make large-scale budget cuts.

On a separate issue, on Saturday I was informed that the Tories treasured Town Centre Water Fountain was vandalised with irresponsible individuals putting washing up liquid in to the fountain, creating a bubble bath in the town centre in the middle of its busiest shopping period. Though I am not prepared to condone the behaviour of those individuals who put washing up liquid in to the Water Fountain, I think this is just another example of how apathetic local residents are to Swindon Council’s Tory administrations actions over town centre regeneration.

Caption – meeting John Healey (Labour shadow health spokesman) in Swindon this week.