Blair Defiant and Unrepentant

I doubt if Tony Blair’s performance ( and I use that word advisedly) at the Iraq Inquiry yesterday will change people’s minds about the Iraq war, but it might just raise a few more questions in the minds of the public about Mr Blair himself.

He could have expressed some regret for the loss of life of British soldiers or Iraqis. He could have regretted the two dodgy dossiers put together by his dodgy team and others. He could have regretted the boost to recruitment for terrorist groups resulting from the crusade that he and his buddy Mr Bush launched. But Mr Blair says he has no regrets. That blinkered zealot-like heartlessness was shocking, especially with grieving relatives sat just behind him.

Many of us who opposed the war predicted the consequences and did not believe Saddam had WMDs in 2001 to 2003 when the Bush/Cheney axis of evil were itching to start a war. Even the 45 minute claim (source: one dissident Iraqi) related to supposed battlefield weapons not WMDs that could threaten any other country. Logic told me at the time that if there was ANY chance that WMDs could have been fired at Israel for example, then Bush and Blair would never have attacked. There was absolutely no way they would have risked chemical weapons landing on Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Blair clearly lied about the WMDs. He knew that the intelligence was ‘patchy and sporadic’ but said the WMDs were ‘beyond doubt’. I believe he knew the 45 minute claim related to supposed battlefield weapons but claimed he did not! I don’t usually read the Mail but CLICK HERE for a great article from 2004.

Following the invasion, the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its nuclear, chemical, and biological programmes in 1991 and had no active programmes at the time of the invasion.

Help Dan please

Please can everyone join the Facebook Group ‘Help Dan’ – he’s a guy from Godalming – as the Facebook Group says, ‘Daniel Eley, a wonderful young man who used to work with street children in South America and is currently teaching English at a school in Cali, Colombia, had a terrible accident on 1st Jan 2010. He dived into a river in a remote area and broke vertebrae in his neck.’ He needs our help. Click here to go to the Help Dan Facebook group
Dan’s family need financial help to pay for an air ambulance to get him home to the UK. Give to the appeal to raise funds by clicking here.

Plot to remove Gordon Brown

Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt have just launched a bid to ditch Gordon Brown as Labour leader and PM weeks before a General Election. Astonishing! Although I have no time for either of them (remember Hoon’s role in the Iraq war) it’s got to be Labour’s only hope of preventing a resounding defeat for them.

Let’s hope all this does not take the spotlight off David Cameron’s economic naivety and ill-thought out tax plans. Gordon actually did rather well in Prime Minister’s Questions today – exposing Cameron’s amateurish policy-making in respect of the married couples allowance and his continued commitment to cutting inheritance tax for a few thousand of the richest people in the land.

Saving the Farnham Water Meadows

Bishop’s Meadow in October 2009

I understand that a rival bid has been made to buy Bishop’s Meadow in Farnham. Alarm bells are ringing!

A speculator has bid close to the asking price so it is critical that we get the maximum possible level of pledges to the Bishop’s Meadow Trust as quickly as possible.

PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN.

We’ve made great progress in our goal of saving Bishop’s Meadow in Farnham. Thousands of pounds have already been pledged with some big backers behind the new ‘Bishop’s Meadow Trust’ that has been set up.

The Lib Dems have taken the lead in setting up the Bishop’s Meadow Trust but the Trust will be controlled by the whole community.

Anyone donating at least £1 will become a member of the Trust and will have a vote at meetings to elect or re-elect Trustees. Regardless of how much a person donates they will only have one vote each. The Trust has been set up in this way deliberately, so that it is truly controlled by the whole community and not by any clique or special interest group.

If you can help the campaign or pledge funds to the Trust you can email me at info@mikesimpson.org.uk

The Trustees will then contact you personally, as the Trust will be non-political in nature.

The Trust is a registered Company limited by guarantee
Company No. 07087967

Jeremy Hunt goes for the BBC again

Jeremy Hunt, MP for South West Surrey, this week continued his campaign of attacks on the BBC, a campaign which began several months ago. A weakened BBC is clearly in the interests of its competitor News International and surprise surprise The Sun is now backing the Tories.

If Mr Hunt were just an ordinary citizen criticising the BBC for its bad decisions and extravagant expenses I would not be concerned, but Mr Hunt hopes in a few months to be in control of the Ministry for media which will oversee the BBC and the press. Mr Hunt’s public utterances are therefore of great concern to all in the media industry.

I have written to Mr Hunt about my concerns that the Tories want to sell off or scrap key parts of the BBC including much of its online operations, Radio 1, BBC 3 and BBC 4. Mr Hunt’s attacks have been vicious and sustained. In a Daily Mail interview last month under the headline, ‘We’ll rein in the BBC, say Tories in radical plans to prevent one broadcaster state’, Mr Hunt talked about scrapping BBC 3 and 4 and taking action which the Mail said would ‘pave the way for channels such as Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News’. In August The Times reported that the Tories were planning to sell off Radio 1.

For months Mr Hunt has pursued an agenda of verbal assaults on the business of the BBC. Yet Mr Hunt, as far as I can see, has said nothing critical about the massive media power of the Murdoch Empire. Are the commercial interests of News International (owners of The Sun, The Times, BSkyB, etc) being deliberately favoured for party political advantage? “Nothing new there” some might say, but at a time when the reputation of politicians has hit rock bottom, we have a right to know.

Jeremy Hunt attempts to cloud the Sky issue

My opponent in South West Surrey has attempted to cloud the issues around his attacks on the BBC and his support for the views of James Murdoch of News International. He says ‘it is not Conservative Party policy to privatise Radio 1’ or ‘ to scrap BBC 3 or BBC 4’.

Readers can make up their own minds by reading the numerous national press stories about Mr Hunt’s views and those of his fellow Tory Shadow Ministers. For example take a look at these articles:

Times details Tory plans to sell off Radio 1
Daily Telegraph article on the Tories, Murdoch and the BBC
Hunt interview with the Daily Mail on plans to curtail BBC
The Independent questions Tory plans for BBC

And finally – How Cameron cosied up to Murdoch

What’s going on with the Tories, The Sun and the BBC?

The Sun newspaper recently came out in support of the Conservatives. Many national newspapers have been questioning the Conservative Party’s relationship with News International, the owners of The Sun.

Why? Take a look at my letter to Jeremy Hunt, the Tory’s Shadow Media Secretary by clicking here.

The plight of young people must be addressed

Speaking at the hustings in Farnham

There is a tragedy unfolding in the current recession. It is the prospect of a lost generation of young people, unable to secure University places and unable to find work. Most politicians are not talking about it. After all in recent elections only a small proportion of people under 25 years old have voted, so there may not be many votes in taking up their cause.

What may shock you is that nationwide 40% of unemployment is accounted for by young people aged 16-24 years. If current trends continue as many as 1 in 4 young people could be out of work by the end of the year.

For all those people of older generations who are now considering voting in a new Tory government I would ask you to cast your minds back to 1979, the last time there was a change in government to the Tories. Mass unemployment amongst young people was one consequence of the policies that followed, with a lifelong impact on vast numbers. I hope that we do not see such a scenario again.

I have worked with young people almost all my working life and my organisation works to a mission statement that aims to ‘Empower young people to fulfil their God-given potential’. Whether or not people have our faith-based ethos everyone can surely agree that our society is enriched by unlocking the potential of the young, rather than letting them languish on benefits.

I welcome the policy proposals of Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, launched last week. He calls it a ‘Lifeboat for the lost generation’. It is a set of crisis management measures funded by reversing the cut in VAT from the end of this month. It includes some great ideas such as paid internships for young people, fully-funded adult apprenticeships for those over 18 years, more university and college places and removing a lot of the crazy rules that stop young people on Job Seekers Allowance from bettering themselves.

The enthusiasm, passion, idealism, talents and inventiveness of youth are greatly needed in an ever more competitive world economic environment. I fear that the economic policies of the Conservative Party would not release that potential, but instead could see our country return to the dark era of the early 1980s. That is one reason why I am passionate about fighting to win this constituency come the General Election.

Mike Simpson
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for South West Surrey

We’ve been badly let down

What goes through your mind as you watch the television News these days? Bewilderment at the sums of money we, as taxpayers, have put into the Banks to save them? Anger at the politicians and so called ‘financial experts’ who landed us in this mess? Or perhaps it’s a feeling of resignation because you look at politicians and think ‘they’re all as bad as each other’.

The last year has shown beyond doubt that those in power who claimed all was well, were either deluded or deceitful. We have all been let down. Is it possible to change the way our country is run? We certainly need to!

We have had 12 years of ‘New Labour’, ending in arrogance, incompetence, sleaze and in-fighting. Before that we had 18 years of the Conservatives ending in arrogance, incompetence, sleaze and in-fighting. Is there a different way? I believe there is. In simple terms I believe the key is not to give so much power to so few people.

The top bankers who messed up so catastrophically, only did so much damage because of the almost unlimited power they had. Politicians tend to make their worst decisions when they have too much power and don’t need to consult or reflect on consequences. The problem is that the political class and the elites who run our government, banks and economy, don’t want to give up any of their power or privilege and all the accompanying perks. We need to challenge that power and privilege which has failed so spectacularly.

We also need to dramatically reduce the extent of government interference in our lives and roll back the ‘big brother’ state. We must give people much more power in their communities, particularly over public services, schools and local health services.

In Parliament we must have a more considered and honest approach rather than the same old political dog fight. There are some huge issues to deal with.

Decisions about what to do about public and private sector pension funds need political parties to work together so that none tries to gain a temporary electoral advantage. The same is true in respect of the hard choices to make about climate change and government debt.

Please contact me if you would like to share in my campaign.

Click here for Mike’s main website

Read more about Mike Simpson

Our duty to our Armed Forces

Mike Simpson Liberal Democrat candidate for South West Surrey in the May 2010 General Election

As the war in Afghanistan takes a heavy toll of young British lives there have rightly been demands that we must provide the best possible equipment for our troops. It is also vital that those who return injured both physically and mentally are properly cared for. A friend told me of the superb work of Major Phil Packer – a disabled officer in the Royal Military Police. He spoke at Haslemere Hall recently. His fundraising campaigns have raised huge sums for Help for Heroes. Such charity work is inspirational. For Phil’s website click here

Sadly the care offered by the NHS to military veterans with post traumatic stress disorder is not so inspirational according to the head of the charity Combat Stress. Commodore Toby Elliott says his charity has 9,000 registered patients but the government provides for less than half of them. He says that NHS mental health pilot schemes are inadequate and may end up providing a patchy service. 300 former service personnel who served in Iraq or Afghanistan are being treated by the charity, which looks after veterans with psychological injuries. See the Combat Stress website by clicking here

Whatever we may think of the Afghan war and the rather muddled war aims set by the powers that be, our troops are putting their lives on the line there. We have an absolute duty to provide high quality care and support for those who return disabled, injured or traumatised. Whilst the work of many hard working charities is to be applauded, it must be the responsibility of our government to ensure that these young men and women receive the best possible treatment.

Mike Simpson
Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for South West Surrey
Click here for www.mikesimpson.org.uk