Nick (Tory) Clegg

So as Nick Clegg gave his conference speech has he proudly raise the Liberal Democrat standard along side the Conservatives on the single issue that matters most - the economy. "Not easy, but right, not easy but right," he kept repeating. But as a range of economists, including those at the IMF this week are saying that Plan A may need to morph into Plan B. In which case Clegg really missed an opportunity and again, we have Clegg acting as the front man for Cameron, "Yes I know people are suffering" softly softly, but the cuts are needed? But the speed and depth may have put this country back into recession and can you really cut your way out of a downturn? Rather than the fanfare about small initiatives such as summer schools and the pupil premium, Clegg could have given his party hope by stating that they will lead from the front before we plunge into a double-dip recession, ordinary party members will demand a change of course and to be fair, Vince Cable has been hinting at this all week, but on this crucial issue, Clegg had little to say. Former lovable leader Charles Kennedy, offered some advice just before Clegg’s speech staying stop fighting on so many fronts and pick a few important fights and win some of them. The economy is the one fight Clegg should have selected and call on Vince Cable’s support but the problem is as he so clearly showed on the platform that he is at one with the Conservative party on the economy and both parties are still happy to to lay all the blame on Labour which today has little mileage left as the global financial crisis continues to rage. I still hold the view that Clegg is a dead man walking, regardless of how long the coalition lasts. The next leader of the Party will surely be Tim Farron and I am sure he is already contemplating when and where to place the knife in Cleggs back; summer 2013 is my best guess. Many centre and centre left Liberal Democrats party activists need hope and many may be starting to desert as their Parliamentary Party become unmanageable and disconnected from the grass root members and supporters. Now logic says they should all hold fast, but how many will have the stomach and heart for that, especially knowing their Tory 'colleagues' are smirking behind their backs and with there long knifes at the ready come the next election!

A Truly False Moralistic and Condemnatory Rhetoric From Frances Maude!

As Frances Maude sets a collision course with the public sector unions and the coalition government it is worth taking a look at what at the background of this Tory minster who has serves in both the Thatcher and Major governments and even more recently during his time in the shadow cabinet formed a key figure in the Deregulation Task Force just before the financial crisis!  However Mr. Maude has railed against irresponsible lending by banks and mortgage companies! But was accused of hypocrisy for receiving more than £100,000 as a director of a company that has profited from sub-prime mortgages; sub-prime means making loans to people who may have difficulty maintaining the repayment schedule. These loans are characterised by higher interest rates and less favourable terms but with the lour of high profits for the bankers.  He is the son of the former Conservative Cabinet minister Angus Edmund Upton Maude who was educated at Rugby School and Oriel College, Oxford, so typical true blue Tory there. Currently his personal net wealth is estimated at £3m. Despite this, during a discussion on Newsnight on 22 October 2010 he argued that a 5% cut to his £65,738 salary was equal to the 'pain' suffered by Britain's poor! During his time as the shadow minister for the cabinet office, he attempted to claim the mortgage interest on his family home in Sussex. This arrangement was rejected by the Fees Office. Two years later, Mr Maude bought a flat in London a few minutes walk from a house he already owned. He then rented out the other property and began claiming on the new flat. The taxpayer has since covered at least £35,000 in mortgage interest payments. Now against this background Mr. Maude will now arrange for an attack on the unions and their public service members for not moving into the real world on pensions and terms of conditions. This will of course help to shift the focus away from the government and the flat-lining economy we currently have. It’s a strategy of divide and rule; setting private sector against the public with the same old faces at the top picking up the financial rewards year on year. It’s the same select privileged group at the top who reap the many and varied financial rewards but as usual the people at the lower end of society are used as cannon fodder to clean up the after mess of the banking crisis. The unions will have to smarten up for this fight, the spectra of a News International Fox News channel may have receded for now but the spin of this Tory lead coalition could manage to shift and deflect so much onto the public sector unions. People have forgot about the birth of Trade Unions and why the Cooperative was setup. Less than a 100 years ago we were subjected to dreadful working conditions with virtually no schooling for our children and the NHS was a dream what many though would never be accomplished. I just wonder if we are slipping back into these dark old days as we watch our aspirations and horizons slip away and once again foreign travel will be the remit of the wealthy.

The Boardroom Bonanza - The Top Pay Just Goes Up and Up

Companies have been busy cutting costs in recent years by slashing the pension provision for employees across the board. This has seen much of the private sector workforce shut out from the best final-salary related schemes, but the boardroom has shown no such restraint. As directors pay has risen like a rocket with many of the packages becoming ever more complex. The average FTSE 100 director has accumulated a pension worth £3.6 million; a sum that can only be dreamt of by an ordinary worker. In fact the 36 top executives in the UK earned at least £500,000 last year, with 14 of them who were on over £1 million a year. There's no such thing as a poor bookie-and that certainly applies to Brian Wallace, finance director of Ladbrokes. His pay almost doubled (+93.3%) to £1.3 million as result of a £560,000 bonus - equivalent to 113% of his basic pay - being paid in 2010 against no bonus the year before. A huge hike in his bonus powered George Walker, president of the US operations of the power generation equipment group Aggreko, to £677,000 - a 57,4% rise on 2009. Rupert Soames, chief executive of the group, only managed a 46.1% rise, but he did get £1.3 million in 2010. Jez Maiden's pay and benefits package increased by almost half - 48.6%, The finance director of bus and train operator National Express moved ever nearer the £1 million a year mark with a 2010 pay packet worth £923,000. These startling new statistics revealed in this report on executive pensions for the High Pay Commission, were compiled by Incomes Data Services using latest available data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF). The report shows that only a third of private sector employees are enrolled in a pension scheme but almost all FSTE 350 companies provide a retirement scheme for their directors. As ever with pay at the top, it is one rule for the workforce as it is exhorted to put up with poor retirement pay so that companies can stay competitive, and another one for the boardroom where generosity remains totally unchecked. The largest pay and benefits package this time around went to Samir Brikho, chief executive of engineering and project management group AMEC, with £2.1 million. His annual cash bonus rose to 121% of his basic salary; in money terms up to £1.1 million against £612,000 in 2009. Overall, his pay and benefits package was 23.7% larger in 2010 than the year before. The figures in the table only include basic pay, annual cash bonus, cash value of benefits and add-on pension allowances. They exclude the long-term bonuses awarded in shares and pension contributions to a defined benefit or defined contribution scheme. Never before has Tory Chancellor George Osborne’s statement “we are all in this together” been shown to be so completely false. I now understand why the top one hundred business leaders openly supported the Tories at the last election; they were in it for themselves and my how they have been rewarded!