Archives for February 2011

Hilary Benn

An illustration of the task facing a Labour revival in the East Midlands comes with the party's choice of its "regional champion". It's Hilary Benn, a Yorkshire MP with not too much connection with the East Midlands. It was a point acknowledged by Hilary Benn, on a visit to Derby to meet party workers.

"Ed Miliband wants there to be a direct link between the regions and the shadow cabinet. There isn't an East Midlands MP in the shadow cabinet at the moment, so I'll be taking that on," he told me.

The era when the East Midlands had three MPs (Margaret Beckett, Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt) at a Labour cabinet table are long over. Labour's Minister for the East Midlands Phil Hope lost his seat in the General Election, as did his predecessor Gillian Merron.

So is Hilary Benn's appointment a sign of desperation? Not so, he says.

"It's really about supporting our East Midland MPs, councillors and candidates in these very important elections that are coming up in May."

The Conservatives in opposition also appointed "shadow ministers" to boost Tory morale in regions where the Labour party was then dominant. Alan Duncan was given Newcastle and Tyneside, where you couldn't find a bigger contrast with his Melton and Rutland constituency. And the current Health Secretary Andrew Lansley was given the brief for greater Nottingham.

Hilary Benn is the current Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, but expect to see him around the East Midlands over the next few months in particular. Local council elections are upon us.

"We will be fighting very hard to win in key places like Erewash, Ashfield, Chesterfield and Gedling.

"As people come face-to-face with the consequences of the cuts, people are looking at the Coalition and are asking themselves: 'Does this lot really know what they are doing'," he added.

But he may have some political firefighting on his hands sooner than he thought. Labour leaders in Nottingham have resisted government requests to put online all council spending over £500.

There's been a war of words between the Communities & Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles and the Labour council over the issue, as I've reported in earlier blogs.

Nottingham says it would cost £100,000, and Labour leaders say that can't be justified when budgets are being squeezed. Labour's new East Midlands champion agrees.

"Transparency's a good thing. But Nottingham says that's going to cost money and when times are tight and tough, it's a question of priorities. If it's a choice of that or cutting something else that really has an impact on the people you represent, I can understand why the council has taken the decision it has."

Labour's new East Midlands champion may find Eric Pickles breathing down his neck.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

The giant-sized lost trainers

Coalition ministers probably feel the need to be pretty nimble-footed with the media, especially on getting any positive message across about the government.

But full marks go to Ed Vaizey, the Culture Minister, and his completely unexpected appearance on an edition of BBC TV's East Midlands Today. It was during one of those quirky "and finally" stories.

This had nothing to do with the latest Coalition initiative or government policy shoe shuffle, but was in a report about a lost pair of super-sized trainers.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey made an unexpected TV appearance

A pair of size 21 sports shoes - that really is BIG - had been handed into the lost property office of Derbyshire Police.

They were appealing for the owner to come forward. As is obligatory in such "and finally" tales beloved by regional TV, there was a vox pop sequence of street interviews with ordinary passers-by.

A handful of Derby citizens offered their amazed reactions to such an enormous pair.

"Surely, the owner must be a giant! It can't be right," said one bemused shopper. And there in the middle of the vox pop reactions, the Culture Minister too gave his considered - if brief - views on the super sized shoes.

"I've never met anyone who would wear such big shoes, but he or she should be easy to find," he told viewers. That was it!

The TV report made no reference to the Culture Minister or why he happened to be in Derby. He wasn't even named. But we can sleep easier in our beds at night. We now know the official government line on lost 21 sized trainers!

He was actually in Derby for the annual conference of British orchestras. Sadly, that just wasn't newsworthy enough, but an ambitious politician and a TV news camera crew are never parted for too long.

Perhaps when the shoes and their original owner are reunited, there'll be a photo op organised by Derbyshire police.

I look forward to a reappearance by the Culture Minister... and some neat footwork.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

The latest government U-turn on selling off forestry land has brought some wry smiles from the sports world. They're still trying to work out the repercussions of one of the Coalition's early policy reversals.

It was the Education Secretary Michael Gove who last December sounded the retreat on big cuts to the funding of sport in schools.

He argued that the Sport School Partnerships (SSP) were too bureaucratic and a classic example of Labour top-down government. That caused a row and a quick ministerial about-turn. But three months on, schools and sports administrators are still unclear what funding they are likely to get in future.

Three SSPs in the East Midlands - North East Derbyshire, Rutland and Hinckley & Bosworth - are facing funding cuts of 80% or more. In Lincolnshire, the SSP team of three will lose their jobs next month. The North East Derbyshire Labour MP Natascha Engel has already raised the funding uncertainty with the Education Secretary.

"The government has said it'll find the funding from other departments, but the money is nowhere to be seen," she says.

The SSPs run sporting activities for children both at school and reach out into the community. The delay on any decision on future funding is causing renewed anger.

"It is particularly frustrating," says Karen Shopland, who runs the School Sport Partnership in North East Derbyshire.

Once again, it may need the intervention of Debbie Foote, a 17-year-old, A-level schoolgirl from Lincolnshire. Her online petition kick started a wave of protest against the original SSP cuts last October. She led a delegation to Downing Street.

Informal talks with the government resulted in a change of heart. Debbie attends Baroness Thatcher's old school, but there's no sign of any Grantham-style hand bagging in her dealings with ministers.

This head girl from Kesteven and Grantham Girls School wants to maintain a channel of communication with the Coalition.

"When the funding was cut back in October, we were in a very dark place," she told me.

In fact, the Department for Education says the SSP funding will continue until this summer. Then £65m will be available so that every secondary school can release a PE teacher one day a week to co-ordinate wider sports activities.

Says Debbie: "There will be something in place. It won't be the School Sport Partnership but fingers crossed that we can still keep working together to make sport as positive at it can be for young people."

Just like the forests sell-off, the row over SSP illustrates the tough politics involved in the Coalition's attempts to cut the deficit.

It might not get any easier if there's little to celebrate over future sports funding.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

David Cameron extols the virtues of the Big Society.

It wasn't quite the Glasgow Empire, but his audience were that seen-it-all, heard -it-all type. Political journalists can be a pretty tough crowd to please, especially when they are en-masse waiting for the top billing. The venue was one of the magnificent long rooms inside 10 Downing Street.

David Cameron had one of those open-house get-togethers to get to know the neighbours better. On this occasion, it was for the political journalists from the regional press and broadcasting who cover the Westminster beat. I was among them.

Before the Prime Minister arrived, we speculated on the timing of the reception; why on a cold winter's night and not in the Number 10 garden on a balmy summer's evening, as in past years? Were we to get a collective rap on the knuckles for our stories? Could it be that our coverage of the cuts failed to put the government's reasoning in context?

After circulating through the crowd - itself a fleeting tour of the regions - the Prime Minister took to the microphone. Behind him, a full length portrait of the first Queen Elizabeth in all her Tudor radiance defending her realm... and in another painting, a less than triumphant Prince James Stuart, the Old Pretender, who lost a throne. As the Prime Minister made references to both paintings, we wondered what sort of speech we were in for.

First, there was his early lesson learnt in being a Prime Minister after nine months in the job. So was this to be the big message on cuts and deficit reduction?

No, not right away. David Cameron gave us few tips on what to do when the official invitations arrive at Downing Street. If it's from the Queen, just say yes; if it's from Silvio Berlusconi, forget the diplomatic niceties, say NO. Absolutely not.

It was a good warm up gag before he moved onto his theme. The Prime Minister flatters and praises his captive audience... and then comes the big message of the night: his vision of the Big Society.

All Prime Ministers hope to leave their mark with a catch-phrase or quote that sums up their premiership. David Cameron told us that his Big Society thinking is not just a meaningless slogan.

He says it's about people deciding and shaping their own decisions for their communities, in their localities, without the heavy hand of central government telling them what to do. Without telling journalists what to write, the Prime Minister told us we were uniquely placed to tell that "Big Society" story. Message over.

He accepts that the cuts agenda - and its impact on local services - is likely to dominate the news agenda for the rest of this parliament. The Big Society is going to be the big narrative for this Prime Minister. I expect it's a message he'll be fine-tuning at Downing Street receptions to come and to the wider country.

It got a round of applause from the journalists, but how will it go down at the Glasgow Empire?

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?

The latest battleground is over transparency. The Communities Secretary Eric Pickles fired a salvo over the Labour-council's reluctance to publish all spending over £500. The council's Leader Jon Collins refused, insisting it was a waste of time and money.

"We are having to deal with some £60m worth of cuts in funding from the government. That's our priority," Councillor Collins told me.

Then the Housing Minister Grant Shapps weighed in, accusing Nottingham of wasting taxpayers' cash and accusing the Labour leadership of acting in a "shameful way".

"People in Nottingham will want to know how much is being spent by their council. Why shouldn't they go online and decide for themselves whether the council is offering value for money," he says.

Jon Collins then upped the anti, calling Grant Shapps "a fool" and Eric Pickles "a buffoon".

"There's no question of picking a fight for the sake of it or some kind of ideological basis for this. We are just standing up for Nottingham," he added.

Ministers have already rattled off a list of examples of wasteful spending by Nottingham Labour.

For starters, Grant Shapps singles out the £250,000 spent on lamp post banners, which promote the council's ambitions for the city. There was criticism over sending six officers to Cannes for a Europe-wide property fair.

"It's actually quite arrogant of the city's leadership to say that it's their business and that the people shouldn't know. Perhaps they have something to hide," says the minister.

Collins is dismissive of the attacks, saying the minister has just got his facts wrong. He's responded by showing me examples of the type of spending just over £500 Ministers Pickles and Shapps have in mind.

* Trading Standards photocopying maintenance £547
* Aids and appliances for the Deaf Team £528
* Youth Offending Team postage costs £500
* Cleaning materials Sandfield Centre £592

"We'll publish this type of information if the law demands it. But at the moment, it's hardly a priority. In terms of staffing needed, it's a waste of time and money," says Councillor Collins.

Then there's Loxley House, the new smart headquarters of Nottingham City Council. In turn, it's also been the target of critics accusing the council of lavish spending. Two thousand staff from seven buildings scattered across the city are now under one roof.

I've been inside and seen the palm trees that adorn this open-plan, hot desking model of workplace efficiency.

Geoff Hibbert, the council's property director, says the new HQ is already saving £1m a year.

So is that the type of thinking that could take the heat out of the close combat between Nottingham's Labour leadership and Coalition ministers?

Says Jon Collins: "We worked very hard to provide value for money and over the last two years, we've saved £37m in efficiencies."

But Grant Shapps is reserving judgement.

Liverpool City Council - also wrestling with big spending cuts - has pulled out of co-operation with David Cameron's Big Society initiative. Nottingham may be the next city council in the mood to defy ministers.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Reddit
• - What's this?