Austin Mitchell's Expenses

How many of those, who complain about MPs' expenses, have themselves worked for a private or public body, have submitted expense requests for a variety of legitimate reasons, and have not had one or two queried? MPs are in their turn employers, and have people working on their behalf. Yet the fees office, which handles their expenses, appear hardly ever to have queried a requested expense; certainly not in this latest case of Austin's.

The Grimsby Labour Party discussed this case with Austin in considerable detail. We were convinced it was a genuine mistake. Given his long record of work for Grimsby, his knowledge and experience of the government scene, his independent views and his active pursuit of them, the Grimsby Labour Party is more than pleased that he is prepared to continue working for us.

How did the mistake happen? Correspondence in the Telegraph suggests that many do not know. Austin had a long standing interest only mortgage through Barclay's bank and he sought to arrange a top up on the same terms. Barclays, however, would not do this since a few years earlier they had taken control over the Woolwich Building Society. So Barclays gave Woolwich the job of adding the extra mortgage , but, unrealised at the time , this part was made a repaymant mortgage.

We wrote about this last May - see here. Since then the atmosphere has deteriorated rather than improved.

Our Council gets rid of its responsibilities

North East Lincs Council outsourced council housing almost five years ago. They are now doing the same for Regeneration. It presumably thinks the Council is not capable of doing its job efficiently (inevitably giving the contractor a good profit). Three schools are already (as academies) independent of the Council, and more will no doubt follow.

All this means that the Council will have little say over a large part of what we expect Councils to do. No longer will electors be able to go to a Councillor to get an injustice put right. When things go wrong, who is to blame? "Not me", says the Councillor, though most won't believe it.

Nor will the Council, except with great difficulty, be able to make plans for the Grimsby, Cleethorpes, and surrounding areas as a whole. Coordination, where required, becomes much more difficult.

We shall soon see the end of the local council as we have known it. The few remaining Councillors will only have to meet once a year to sign the necessary contracts.

Global Warming

A big problem that's going to be with us for a long time. Our first concern here is with the local implications. There are some notes on the Council Affairs page. For more background click here.

The Copenhagen conference was never expected to produce a neat, complete solution to global warming, but the result was worse than feared. It showed again that the underlying problem is political.

The main parts of the scientific explanation about the existence and causes of global warming are now well established. There are very few sceptics who are prepared to argue in detail about the scientific facts and theories. A high proportion of criticism from most sceptics tends to be generalities mixed with a few innuendos and half truths. Yet politicians know that the public are naturally uncertain about how the world climate is changing and are reluctant to accept the implications which may mean many changes and costs.

So sceptics are reflecting some feelings of the public. One way to meet this challenge would be to put more emphasis on associated problems. Thus there is a looming problem about our energy supplies, and the solutions to that are in part also an answer to global warming.

What does our MP do?

Since most of us don't know how our MP spends his time, we asked Austin Mitchell just that. Click here and see his schedule for the week

Recession

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) is the most highly respected of all our economic Think Tanks. Its latest report has received less attention than its serious conclusions demand.

There is likely to be slow economic growth next year and in 2011, but it won't be until 2012 that the economy as a whole will achieve the total output that it reached before the recession. Because of the financial nature of the recession, the loss of asset value and continued existence of enormous debts, there has been a loss of growth, so that a quick return to the pre-recession of output will not be possible. See also our Comment page

Do people really want higher unemployment?

This would seem to follow from the answers to a recent opinion poll. 64% thought that the government should reduce expenditure now. 28% wanted to see government expenditure increase. Yet there are some economists who want to see expenditure increase in the short run, as the recession still has a long way to go. The bottom may have passed, but no significant upsurge in growth is likely to come soon.

Cuts now would make things worse. Unemployment will probably continue to increase for some time, and adding to it unnecessarily would be crazy. In time, expenditure will have to be restrained, but the timing is crucial.

The current public discussion about what government expenditure should be cut is premature. There may well have to be some cuts in expenditure and increases in taxation, but there are too many uncertainties to make forecasts reliable. Will manufacturing industry expand and by how far? At what level will private savings settle at? And changes in government policy could be relevant. The trouble is that in politics we are not allowed to wait and see, and, of course, uncertainty is thought to be weakness.

Council fails to support The Grimsby Telegraph

Most newspapers have been struggling in recent years, and more especially now because of reduced advertising income. Yet the Council chose this time to stop giving much of their advertising to the Grimsby Telegraph.

The Telegraph is an important part of our local community. By its action the Council is failing the community as well as the Telegraph. To see Austin Mitchell's letter click here. And for our comment click here