Recommended reading for Lib Dem councillors and local campaigners from the last seven days:
National stories in the last week have included:
The Government’s focus on the banking sector: Vince Cable wrote in the Guardian’s “comment is free”: Merlin: our bonus for British business
The Observer considers the other big announcement of the week in: Why we should believe Nick Clegg when he promises to restore liberties stolen by Labour
And as some unelected Labour Peers mess with our democracy, the Independent reports that: Pro-AV campaign surges to 10-point lead
Liberal Democrat councillors were in the news towards the end of last week with a letter from 91 Group Leaders to the Times on the local government’s financial settlement:
For what it’s worth the Times editorial on the day of the letter is published below (we can’t link to the Times, as you have to be a subscriber to read its online content).
This was the Telegraph’s take: Nick Clegg publicly criticised by dozens of Lib Dem council leaders over cuts. Cllr Chris White reflects on the aftermath on Lib Dem Voice.
Lib Dem Leader of Sheffield Council: Paul Scriven writes: we cannot let Labour off the hook on Council cuts
The Mail on Sunday says: For 88 years the Libdems have yearned for power, now they’ve got it why are they so miserable? (mentioning ALDC a couple of times, for some unknown reason…)
Elsewhere in local Government:
The Municipal Journal reports as: Row heats up over politically motivated budget cuts and Lib Dem Voice reflects that: Labour councils cut more jobs than Tory or Lib Dem areas
MJ also reports:Councils empowered to tackle Blue Badge abuseScots councils face up to £450M of cuts
Tim Pickstone
tim.pickstone@aldc.org
Times Editorial, 10 February 2011
February 10 2011 12:01AM The saying that all politics is local was a favourite of Tip O’Neill Jr, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives. That certainly applied to the Liberal Democrats until they joined the coalition Government. Condemned to distant third-party status in national elections, their base was in running local authorities.
Now, the custodians of local Lib Dem power — the 90 council and group leaders who have written to The Times — are revolting against the central Government of which their party is a member. Their ire is reserved specifically for Eric Pickles, the combative Local Government and Communities Secretary. But it’s not good news for Nick Clegg either. The howl of agony at the scale of the cuts that local authorities have been asked to administer is not their main point.
There is no doubt that Mr Pickles’ department came bottom of the Whitehall beauty parade in the spending round. The local government part of the department will have its spending cut by 27 per cent by 2015. Perhaps a different distribution of pain might have made that number slightly smaller. But the cuts would have been large, all the same.
The local power brokers in the Liberal Democrats know this very well. That is why their main point is an attempt to detach themselves from responsibility. Perhaps, they hope, this will salvage a few seats in local elections. Perhaps the Conservatives will take the rap. There is no chance that this strategy can work. Lib Dems are in the coalition; its work is their work. Their best hope is to get on with reducing the deficit and, if there is any credit to be had when that job is done, to claim some of it.