Do Labour understand tax credits?

Twitter is my favourite social media tool.

I can wake up in the morning and instantly read all the bits of political gossip immediately - (I choose who I follow to suit my interests and from all sides for a balanced perspective).

I ensure that when I join in, I speak my mind and my truth, Twitter is meant to be slightly controversial and I am far more devil's advocate on my political platform than I am elsewhere, such is the nature of this particular social media tool.

So for instance, I was quite happy to call David Lammy MP a fibber this morning in a tweet directly to him, because he is either fibbing or he doesn't know what tax credits are and is a bit muddled about the various benefits. Either way, it doesn't bode well for an MP but I suspect it is the former. He just wanted to seem heroic to the Left followers who are still bitter and angry that we are in power and stronger than ever.

He sent out a tweet saying his mum could not have done without this particular benefit. This touched my nerve for a couple of reasons.

1) He was 31 when it was introduced!
2) Many of us, including his mum, did without them completely as single parents and did absolutely just fine. In fact, I think its the one single factor that made me so successful in my career in the insurance industry, at the time. Promotion was the only way I was going to give myself and family a good life.

The difference between a socialist and a Tory, like me, is much greater than people suggest but we all agree that an obvious difference is on the subject of welfare. It is the Conservatives who care about the people in this country, we know the best way of making our nation great. But socialists do not have a monopoly on great moments of compassion - our (conservative) history is rich with it.

Socialists think that we are all victims, even worse, some actually like victimhood so that they can prey and feed their own sense of worth. We, however think survivor mode. They believe people are incapable of understanding concepts, policy and self-responsibility, We think the opposite.

On a much less important scale, this was evident in a licensing committee I attended this week where a labour councillor suggested that we do a training session for taxi drivers on using a really simple page online to manage their licenses, despite the officer confirming that it had been well tested. Taxi drivers are not stupid and the page was really user-friendly. In fact if you can send an e-mail, you can use this page. Furthermore, it's not compulsory so good old fashioned hard copy is well accepted and our staff are on the other end of the phone, if they do need any help.

This is why when Labour are in government everything costs so much more - they will spend thousands of pounds of our money on a tiny minority of people. They aim everything at the lowest common denominator.

I once worked with a co-operative group, in schools, on many fantastic projects. I constantly had intelligent disagreements with my lovely, mainly politically left colleagues (and they are lovely, are still my friends and are extremely capable) about how to aim the sessions - lowest capability v highest capability in the room. Until one day a teacher agreed with me that aiming at the highest capability shows the group the standard that is expected from them and motivates everyone in the room. Aiming for the lowest just bores pupils and becomes counter-productive. In the end little is learnt or remembered.

My position in politics is the one I adopt in business and I know for a fact that the best scenario is to be supportive and hand-hold temporarily, to empower, not create victim hood and lack of self belief.

Anyway I have digressed a little - the truth of this issue is that it doesn't matter how well intentioned, our over-generous welfare benefits were, we are now going to be far more realistic and empowering.

Watch this space and we will see the proof in the pudding. Further work is needed and universal credit will be a fantastic culmination of some clever thinking and some sense of perspective.

Poverty is about money to the left.

Poverty for me is about lack of tenacity, lack of self responsibility, lack of motivation, lack of a sense of achievement and more important a lack of choices. No-one ever got rich on legally entitled benefits either.

THAT's really poor - I've been in both situations, and money has never determined my happiness, ever.

Well this is it! - Election Day over

So, the end of the voting has arrived, the polling stations ar shut and I will be making my way to the count.

Whatever the result, I will know I have done my very best for Stoke Park, worked hard for 8 years, campaigned tirelessly in the last few months.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this period but will welcome my life back!

Either I will be spending more time on my business and helping it to grow or I will be back as Stoke Park's Conservative councillor. Either way there is lot to be grateful for.

It was all down to you the voters and I will be back on this blog over the next few days with comment and results.

Good Luck to all my colleagues all over the UK.....

My Interview on Radio on new Windfarm rules

Transcript from thursdays interview with Mark Murphy following the announcement of new rules where new planning rules which will give communities the power to block wind farms. Residents will have to be consulted over new wind farms with applications barred if there is significant opposition. Under the plans, energy companies will be able to offer incentives - such as discounts on bills - to persuade communities to agree to new wind farms. Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, commented: "We want to give local communities a greater say on planning, to give greater weight to the protection of landscape, heritage and local amenity." 

I then tweeted Mark who immediately asked me to speak on his morning show:

Nadia Cenci (NC)- It has got a little bit quiet as far as I am concerned, because obviously now we’re waiting for the planning application to go in to Babergh.
And I can’t really do a lot about that. I am campaigning on behalf of Ipswich residents along with Stop Ipswich Turbines. As you know I did a survey and when it came back I had quite a high response and 80% of the local residents were against.

Mark Murphy (MM)  – Yet despite that we’ve had Renewables UK today saying there is overwhelming support for these things everywhere.

NC – There might be everywhere on a general (basis), they’re being very generic, but they’ve had it loud and clear from me, Stop Ipswich Turbines, the residents at public meetings - we do not want this on our doorsteps.

MM – Why?

NC – Not because we’re against wind turbines, we’re not. But this is 130 metres (high) and the closest house will be 400mtrs. 
Can you imagine having that towering over your house? Can you imagine? 
So we’re banding together, this is not what we want. They look beautiful in the sea, and they look beautiful far away from someone's home, but you cannot have these things towering over your house - and that’s the objection, not, you know, in principle.

MM – So what do you make of these proposals coming from the coalition today? Councils will be told to put local concerns first. So you hope that, in this case Babergh who will be looking at this one, it’s a border case as you say, you hope that they will be taking that local feeling into case here?

NC – They HAVE to take that local feeling into account, I mean I can't deal with Babergh residents (out of my jurisdiction) but from Stop Ipswich Turbines (survey) they are just as against it so they’ve got to take local feeling into account. And I am really really keen to see how this pans out. If that’s what we’re being told, then the proof will be in the pudding, Mark, because you can’t get more resounding than 80%.

MM – What about some money from the developers. They’ll also have to pay some more to residents who allow turbines in their area, so if there was more of a financial incentive for those people perhaps they’d be more keen?

NC – Actually I just caught the tail end of your last speaker, and I don’t agree (that it will cause conflict where some residents would agree to take the incentive) . I really think you could offer a lot of money to some of those residents in Belstead village and they would not be interested. But of course you’re going to get the occasional person (who will), and perhaps, you know, there will be a little bit of conflict, but overall most of them will say No – if you go to Kessingland and listen to their misery story, there is no price on that, (to compensate).

Now let's see the new legislation working for the residents in Babergh and Ipswich when it comes to the planning application because the way i read it - they have to refuse it.........

Launch of election Campaign for Ipswich Conservatives

It’s election time again! The Conservatives campaign all the year around, but you will see more of us over the next few weeks. Our candidates for the County Council, and for the two Borough Council elections, are campaigning hard and hope you will support their message of low taxes, quality services and policies designed to reward aspiration.

Conservatives already have County Councillors in Bixley, Chantry, Gainsborough, Rushmere and Whitehouse & Whitton Divisions. That’s more than half the people of Ipswich represented by Conservative County Councillors. Conservative County Councillors who voted to freeze council tax again this year. But Labour Borough Councillors voted to up the tax, meaning everyone will have to pay more in the future.

Last time Labour were in power at Endeavour House, the County Council HQ, they hiked up our Council Tax by more than 40% in four years. That included a rise of 18.5% in one year, which still costs most Ipswich households almost a hundred pounds every year.

We don’t need to look to history to see what Labour’s instinct is. Their leader on SCC is also an Ipswich Borough Councillor. This year he voted in favour of another council tax rise, whilst approving of wasteful spending.

Conservatives pledge to freeze council tax for the next four years. We will ensure that the county council lives within it’s means, and that you, the taxpayer, will not have to pick up the tab for Labour’s mistakes.

The Conservative candidates for Ipswich are:

Bixley – County Councillor Alan Murray

Chantry – Kevin Algar and Nadia Cenci (two seats)
Bridge - Bob Hall

Gainsborough  - County Councillor Carol Debman
Priory Heath - Mark Felix-Thomas

Rushmere – County Councillor Judy Terry

St Helen’s – Katherine Parkinson

St John’s – Eddy Phillips

St Margaret’s & Westgate – Lee Reynolds & Chris Stewart (two seats)

Whitehouse & Whitton – David Goldsmith & County Councillor Robin Vickery

There are also two by elections on Ipswich Borough Council, one in Alexandra and one in Whitehouse. Our candidates for these two seats are:

Alexandra – Eddy Phillips

Whitehouse – Paul West

Work Hard and Succeed

A Budget for People who aspire to work hard and get on ..... That's how Mr Osborne outlined his Budget this week. And I was pleased to hear that the theme was Aspiration.

Personally, I wanted to see something that would help business owners. There has been a lot of debate about welfare benefits, cuts, the EU and people who are on the poverty line. These are important issues but they are not the only ones. We need to be able to attract and build businesses to continue the upward trend of employment in the private sector and to give hope to thousands of youngsters. Under Labour the youth unemployment just kept going up and up, so this is not a recent problem. There is so much more to do, so much more to help young people. These 4 things are a good start.

1. Reduction in the Rate of Corporation Tax. Company taxation has been in the headlines a lot recently with anger directed at some large organisations that seem able to avoid paying tax in the UK. But now we have the Chancellor trying to attract international Companies by reducing the Tax Rate to 20% by 2015. The benefit of this is reliant on making money in the first place but is much needed.

2. A new employment allowance. From April 2014 - employers will receive an allowance that will cut the first £2000 from their National Insurance bills. In real terms this means that 450,000 - a third of all employers won't pay any NI at all. And this one move will benefit up to 1.25 million employers overall. This is an effective way for the government to support Entrepreneurs as they grow their business. 

3. Fuel Duty. Mr Osborne announced a Fuel Duty freeze, scrapping a petrol duty escalator that had been planned for the autumn. Fuel affects all of us whether it’s running a haulage firm, driving to work or just buying food in the shops. This is really good news.

4. Infrastructure. George Osborne also announced that an extra £3bn will be pumped into infrastructure projects such as road, rail and power station building from 2015–16 - He said investing in the "economic arteries" of the UK will get growth flowing to "every part of it".. 

I didn’t expect the budget to blow us all away but overall it felt quite positive and in line with an Aspiration Nation. Much  better  than One  Nation  Notion.

Thorington Windfarm Consultation

I, along with many Stoke Park residents, attended the PfR consultation at Belstead Brook hotel on Monday to see the new positioning and proposed designs of turbines for Thorington.

They have finished analysing environmental data and are begininning their impact assessment for the planning application to Babergh Council.

There will be 2 turbines - one on Ipswich owned land, just slightly further back from the original site, and one on private land near Jimmys farm. Both fall under Babergh Council jurisdiction.

This is a small improvement to those in Stoke Park but not much consolation to all the residents who really just do not want this next to homes.

I spoke to the management team at length about positioning and residents concerns and of course they are only doing their job. they were extremely knowledgeable and tried very hard to alleviate peoples fears but I'm afraid not much has changed.

Pictures, showing how the turbines will look, were pinned up around the room but we couldnt fail to notice that none of them were at an angle that would truly show the turbines at their most hideous. All of the takes were, without exceptional, at a camera angle that implied the turbines would look much smaller but were partly hidden in dips. If they had mocked scenarios to show them to scale with nearby houses, we would have seen very different pictures!

They continue to state that the common concerns of flicker, noise, lower house prices are not a problem but we beg to differ.

Apparently Kessingland was awful yesterday and Peter Evans of SIT (Stop Ipswich Turbines) has invited people to go along today. That may not be possible but we can take his word on this. We now know that Kessingland residents are in despair.

Will we be able to convince Babergh planning that this is not what we want and give them sufficient evidence to help them reject this? We must try.

Ben Gummer and I have completed a survey which overwhelmingly states we do not want this and so we must put the new Localism Act to test.

Please continue to write to our Mps in Suffolk. All hands on Decks please.....