Ransom Demand

Today the country heard a ransom demand. It was badly disguised as a plea for help, but it was a ransom none the less. David Cameron told voters to 'vote for him or else'. All other options are doom and destruction apparently. But what he believes would be acceptable is a Conservative party that would cut taxes only for the rich, fail to reform the banking system, leave the broken political system unchanged and threaten the recovery with big cuts this year. A vote for them is not change. It is a vote for the same old party that is even now being told by their own leader of Kent County Council, the man running the biggest education authority in the country, that Tory education policy would see cuts for normal state schools. The change in this election is a vote for the Lib Dems. One of the questions YouGov asked in a poll last week was: "if you thought the Lib Dems could win, how would you vote?" The answer: 49% said Liberal Democrat. Funnily enough The Sun failed to use that figure in its editorial. The Lib Dems are winning in constituencies across the UK. There can be change, with a vote for us.

5 Years

Today we were told that it may take 5 years to get our money back from the bailout of the banks. UKFI, who look after our interests in the banks on behalf of the Government, play their cards close to their chest (i.e. tattooed on), and then come out with that figure. This organisation needs to be opened up to proper scrutiny, as they are managing billions of pounds of our investment. They have offered to talk to MP's about what they do twice a year. As a concession. This is absurd. UKFI shoud be fully answerable to taxpayers, and MP's should have access to what they are up to. To offer ana occasional update as if it was up to them how they conduct themselves inspires no confidence at all. Vince Cable warned today that it may take a decade to realise our investment, as has been seen elsewhere in the past. So we need honest, clear answers from UKFI, and a proper say in what they, and our banks are doing with our money.

Bankers Petition

We had a really good morning on Staines High Street with our new bankers petition. We are calling on the Chancellor to put a 10% levy on bank profits, break up banks to separate the casino (risk taking) operations from the high street banks, and close tax loop holes for the very rich. We asked local shoppers whether they would support the petition, and the response was excellent. What we found this morning was that people were all set to rush to M&S, but mention the banks and they stopped to talk. This is clearly an issue that won't go away, and the anger is still there. Vince Cable has led this debate from the beginning, and again today people were full of praise for him. We may well do this again before I send the petition off to Alistair Darling. One little aside: we chatted to a long time Labour campaigner who said they were supposed to be campainging this morning in the same place, but he was the only one there. Even their candidate had not shown up! It really is a 2 horse race in Spelthorne!