Jim Hancock

CBI CONFUSED ON DEVOLUTION

A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION IS ANSWER FOR BUSINESS

The Confederation of British Industry has a confused position on devolution. This week its Director General, John Cridland,described the plethora of regeneration schemes like City Deals and Growth Funds as “a tower of Babel” that business had to try and cope with. He also complained about the multiple tiers of government, particularly with local councils in the shires, and accused politicians of doing devolution by deadline with back door deals. He told an audience in Manchester we needed to take things gradually and allow all voices to be heard.

So I asked Mr Cridland whether he would support a Constitutional Convention so that the CBI, along with everyone else, could have their say in shaping a coherent solution to a range of issues from the governance of the North and business support to the future shape of local government and the Local Enterprise Partnerships; he refused to commit himself. This was because we are in a General Election campaign and it is Labour Party policy to have a Convention. However in other answers he made it clear he favoured the sort of piecemeal approach to devolution which is likely to lead to the continuation of the confused picture of Combined Authorities, two tier councils, elected mayors and centralised government support schemes that we have now.

Despite this muddled thinking Cridland did make an important speech outlining how business sees devolution. Its central purpose had to be getting the regions to perform better. The CBI chief reckoned they could contribute £56bn towards the deficit of £90bn.

For the UK as a whole he regarded it as essential that we retain common business taxation and financial rules as well as a common energy and labour market.

For English regions he had three criteria for growth friendly devolution. They were evidence that it would boost growth, better local leadership and the minimisation of bureaucracy and complexity.

The CBI is dead against tax varying powers in City Regions. He reminded his Manchester audience of the years before uniform business rates when companies had to lobby each local council and rates varied wildly.

He however did support local tax retention schemes like Manchester’s buy back arrangements.

He praised the devolution deal that Greater Manchester had negotiated but posed the vital question about what happens to the rest of the North? Well Mr Cridland that’s the sort of issue that could be addressed in a comprehensive Constitutional Convention which the CBI needs to support.

CONSTITUENCY FOCUS: ROSSENDALE AND DARWEN.

Could we see the Straw dynasty survive in the new parliament? Jack Straw is standing down in Blackburn and there had been speculation that his son, Will, would succeed him.

But, unlike America where you can be President providing you are called Clinton or Bush, here we don’t care for dynastic politics. So Will is trying his hand in the much more marginal nearby seat of Rossendale and Darwen. Part of the constituency has Blackburn as its local council but it includes the south Lancashire communities of Rawtenstall and Bacup as well.

It has swung between Labour and the Tories over the years. Currently Jake Berry holds the seat with a majority of under five thousand having ousted Labour’s Janet Anderson in 201

PUTTING THE BOOTS INTO BUSINESS

MILIBAND AND BUSINESS

Ed Miliband is staking everything on being the people’s champion against vested interests. He may be personally awkward and unable to eat a bacon sandwich but he is convinced that voters will rally to Labour as the party for people who are fed up with the fat cats getting away with it. He may be right and if he can get enough of them to vote, he might win. On the other hand the Tories may succeed in nailing him as a leftie with a downer on enterprise.

It is essential that Miliband breaks out of the torpor that has surrounded his leadership. He can’t change his personal image, he can’t change the fact that the economy is on the mend but he has developed a habit of courageously taking on vested interests.

This began with Rupert Murdoch when revelations about phone tapping first emerged. Next were the energy companies threatened by a price freeze. Now Stefano Pessina of Boots and Tory donor Lord Fink are caught up in Ed’s latest campaign for people to pay their fair share of tax in the UK.

He is definitely on to something here. It is a common complaint that ordinary people on PAYE, well known to Inland Revenue and Customs, are readily fined for being a few days late with their tax forms whilst it seems these fat cats with their money stashed abroad are treated with awe and respect. The approach is justified on the grounds that being nice and polite might get some money back whereas going in hard with court cases will be costly and not productive. Well let’s try it and see whether the bad publicity leads to lots of these tax exiles paying up at the court door.

This matters. We are talking billions of pounds that could be being spent reducing the deficit and saving public services. If Ed Miliband can convince people it won’t be business as usual under him, he might be on to something at last.

KEY NORTHERN SEATS: SOUTHPORT.

Each week between now and the General Election I will be looking at some of the key contests in the Downtown in Business areas of the North West and Leeds.

We start with the battle between the Conservatives and Lib Dems in the genteel streets of Southport. In times past the constituency fluctuated regularly between the two parties. But since 1997 it has been in Lib Dem hands, initially in the shape of the flamboyant Ronnie Fern, but for the last three elections John Pugh has held the seat. Pugh, a school teacher for thirty years was a big contrast to Ronnie Fearn. He has earned a reputation as a good constituency MP recently highlighting the economic problems of resort towns in a Commons debate. Shamefully overlooked for ministerial office in the Coalition, he has distanced himself from some of the government’s policies.

His Tory opponent is supermarket executive and Preston councillor, Damien Moore. He has to overcome a six thousand Lib Dem majority, so the party will have to be in real meltdown for this seat to change hands.

Next week: Rossendale and Darwen.

LIB DEM PEER MAY BID FOR GREATER MANCHESTER MAYOR.

LABOUR ONLY FOR INTERIM GREATER MANCHESTER MAYOR?

Must we presume that the interim mayor of Greater Manchester has to come from the Labour Party? May we not consider the possibility that another party or an independent could hold this post? Might it not be healthy for the all powerful Manchester City Council to have to deal with someone not of their stripe, holding a post they never wanted?

The Labour dominated Greater Manchester Combined Authority has drawn up a job spec for the person they will appoint as interim mayor to fill in until a directly elected mayor is chosen by the people in 2017. The person has to be an elected member of one of the ten councils or an MP. Two other post holders, the elected mayor of Salford and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester are specifically included (which may be very significant in the latter case).

It is unlikely that many rank and file councillors will fancy challenging their leaders for the post and MPs have a General Election to fight. So the chances are that the interim leader will either be a current council leader, the Elected Mayor of Salford (Ian Stewart) or Police Commissioner Tony Lloyd. the current chair of The current chair of the Combined Authority Lord Smith of Wigan might still go for it but the hot money is on another Labour man, Tony Lloyd. He would lose his job under a Labour government as the party is pledged to axe the post of crime commissioner. It’s unlikely people like Sir Richard Leese (Manchester) and Jim McMahon (Oldham) will be interested in this interim position. They are aware that a Labour government might not implement the permanent post and even the Tories may be distracted in another minority government.

It is open to Sean Anstee, the Tory leader of Trafford to put himself forward. Good luck with that.

Then we come to Stockport where the Liberal Democrats head up a minority administration. The leader Sue Derbyshire shows no sign of wanting to stand for interim mayor, but her colleague Lord David Goddard may do.

David Goddard has had a roller coaster ride in politics. Once of the Labour party, he switched to the Lib Dems and became council leader. He lost his seat in 2012 in a targeted campaign by Labour, won it back two years later before becoming a peer . As an Offerton councillor he is eligible to be the interim mayor and is reluctant for the post to go to a Labour politician by default.

Goddard has been an active member of the Combined Authority(C.A), helping to negotiate the City Deal, the first C.A Environment Commissioner and represented the nine local authorities on the Airport Board during crucial investment talks . He was a leading member of the successful campaign against plans for a congestion charge in Greater Manchester.

That was a rare defeat for Sir Richard Leese and Chief Executive Sir Howard Bernstein but it was an indication that Goddard is prepared to stand up to the mighty Manchester.

The Combined Authority plans to have an interim mayor in place by June and we must see what happens if Lord Goddard finally puts himself forward. Let’s hope he does because it is important, if the Greater Manchester Mayoral Election does take place in 2017,that it is not seen as just a rubber stamp for a member of the Labour hierarchy.

THE RISE OF THE HARD LEFT….AND RIGHT

THE GREEK EFFECT.

What effect will the triumph of the far left in Greece have on our General Election?

People across Europe are reacting to years of austerity and the failure of mainstream parties to offer fresh solutions. Greece is an extreme example of how the slump has crushed ordinary people. They have responded with a defiant cry against the attempts to make them obey the economic rules that we must all obey. Whilst some minor debt repayment restructuring might be possible, the fact remains that two things will save Greece. A productive economy and people paying their taxes. I fear the next phase in the Greek drama will be dangerous disillusionment amongst the Greek people when the Syriza politicians are unable to implement policies like hiring ten thousand public sector workers as they bump up against the rules of the Euro Zone and European Central Bank.

A far left party in Spain is mobilising to make big gains in its election later this year. With a much bigger economy than Greece, that could pose an even greater challenge to the European financial institutions.

Although the UK’s economy is on the mend there are plenty of signs that people are looking for alternatives. On the right there is UKIP, in Scotland the SNP, but the growth in membership of the Green Party could be highly significant. The Greens offer a much more fundamental challenge to the way society is organised with bold policies on energy and taxation. Initial attempts to keep them out of the election TV debates caused a backlash, and quite right too.

How will Labour respond if they detect a growing appetite for more radical solutions? Ed Miliband has been inching his party to the left but remains nervous about how it will play in those southern marginals. The issue of our Trident nuclear missiles remains a fascinating issue. I was in the Commons gallery recently where Labour’s spokesman on the issue, Vernon Coaker, pledged the party to approving the “main gate” decision on renewing the four boat fleet. But what if Labour has to do a deal with the anti nuclear SNP after May 7^th? Is there really a majority of Labour MPs and activists prepared to stay out of office rather than scrap Trident? We could find that the arguments that beset the party during the leadership of Hugh Gaitskell in the 1960s would resurface.

ANOTHER TAWDRY DEFECTION.

Politicians sometimes defect on the grounds of principle, but often not. I remember a man called Peter Thurnham, the MP for the highly marginal seat of Bolton North East up to 1997. He tried for the safer prospect of Westmorland and when he wasn’t selected, suddenly discovered he was a Lib Dem.

Amjad Bashir, an MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber seems to have even more difficulty in defining his political principles. Following associations with Respect and UKIP he has now joined the Tories. UKIP say they were about to suspend him over various allegations connected to his business and political behaviour.

Have the Conservatives done due diligence on this man or are they just like all other parties in being unable to resist defectors to them, however unconvincing they are?