It's dark, and I've got a shovel...

Yes, I've been to another Parish Council meeting, and the big news was that Rosemary, our Parish Clerk, had our new grit bin... in the back of her car.

And so it was agreed that Steve, our Chair, and I would put it in its designated spot, next to the postbox in The Lane after the meeting. Luckily, it's made of plastic, so it wasn't heavy, as Steve proved by carrying it himself down the street and placing it, still wrapped in plastic, on the ground.

My job was then to remove the wrapping, and put the grit already next to the postbox in to the new grit bin, making it too heavy to steal - us country folk, we're not daft, you know. Of course, only having nine street lights meant that I was doing this effectively by moonlight, but it takes more than that to stop a Parish councillor.

So I grabbed my trusty shovel and did the deed. So now we have a grit bin, with grit in it. Best of all, our county councillor has agreed to pay for it out of his 'quality of life' budget and they'll be filling it tomorrow, we're assured.

And now I sit, in front of my computer, with a bottle of honey porter from the Vieira Brewing Company by my right hand. Yes, it's another perfect day in Paradise-sur-Gipping...

A quick visit to Meerkovo

You may recognise this as the 'Queasy Mongoose' in Meerkovo, the latest addition to the wonderful world of comparethemeerkat.com. However, for those of us who live in Suffolk, it's probably better known as 'The Bell' in Kersey, where the advert was filmed.

Kersey is probably best known in these parts for its 'splash', where a tributary of the River Brett runs across the main street, and it is a remarkable chocolate box confection of a village.

And now that Ros and I have a little time to ourselves, Ros has taken to showing me bits of the county that I haven't seen before, so we drove through Bildeston and on across the gently rolling countryside that is South Suffolk. It isn't dramatic, and consists almost entirely of arable farmland, but the beauty of the county is in its built environment. Oh yes, once upon a time the wealth of the country lay in villages like Kersey, with wool bringing in the money.

And upon the small hill overlooking the village is the church, much bigger than you might expect from a village the size of Kersey, but again the result of the wealth generated by the wool trade with Flanders.

Of course, beyond the hill is the council housing, out of sight of the main village, and something not exactly unusual in Suffolk villages, where council housing tended to be built on the edges. But you wouldn't expect to see that in Meerkovo, would you?...

Ed Milliband wants me to show courage. The courage of a lemming, admittedly...

And so Ed Milliband has made his big speech to the Fabians, and he thinks that the labour Party should work with 'courageous' Liberal Democrats, i.e. those that agree with him. So, what did he have to say?

The decision of the Liberal Democrats to join a Conservative-led government was a tragic mistake, and I hope they come to see that in time.

I'm assuming that you think that going to coalition with Conservatives would always be a mistake. In which case, if we're only ever going to work with you, what would be the point of us existing as an independent political party? No, I forget, you'd really rather we didn't.

Forgive me if I decline to join those who are gloating at the expense of the Liberal Democrats.

But weren't you the one who said that we should be eradicated? Or am I confusing you with another Milliband?

Because their mistake means they are part of a government attempting to shift politics to the Right.

No, we're part of a government that is attempting to make up for your wastefulness, extravagance and cowardice, and because it doesn't have you in it, it is less left-wing than you were, not exactly political rocket science.

I am certainly pleased that many Liberal Democrats now see Labour as the main progressive hope in British politics.

Many Liberal Democrats what? Members? No, don't think so. Supporters, maybe? Voters, certainly? But what are you offering them? A false hope that, miraculously, the massive overspending that the Coalition inherited will just go away all by itself? An option of throwing up your hands and saying that nothing can be done? Hope of what, exactly?

Thousands of them have joined us since the election. 

Really, or was it just people who support you anyway and have joined because they hope that you might save them from the fate you brought them?

I want them to find a welcome home in our party – not just making up the numbers, but contributing actively to the strengthening of our values and the renewal of our policies.

So, let me get this right, you want us to join because, as liberals, we fit right into your party's agenda of removing civil liberties, increasing centralisation, slavish indulgence of American foreign policy, a larger role for the state in people's lives? For pity's sake, can't someone send him a copy of 'On Liberty'?

But equally there are many Liberal Democrats who have decided to stay and fight for the progressive soul of their party. Most of them do not want to see their progressive tradition sacrificed for personal ambition.

Actually, I'm staying because I intend to fight for the liberal soul of my party. The word 'progressive' is so meaningless, so devoid of philosophical fibre, that it can only be the last refuge of a political movement that only believes in what will get it elected. And as for political ambition, what does your CV include, Ed? A proper job doing anything outside of the Westminster bubble?

I respect their choice too and I understand how painful it must be to watch what is happening to their party.

Actually, my Party gives me a say in that, unlike the Labour Party. I got to take part in a debate on whether or not to go into coalition, I get to vote for my leader on the basis of one person, one vote, I get to make policy at our conference. Oh sorry, I really shouldn't have mentioned the second bit, should I?...

We do not doubt that they hold sincere views and we will co-operate, where we can in Parliament and outside, with those that want to fight the direction of this government.

And take it in which direction, Ed? Oh, but you can't tell me, can you. You can tell me where you won't go, or might not go. But you don't actually know. Perhaps you could provide me with a philosophical roadmap, so I could make an educated guess. Ah, but that hasn't been agreed yet. All I can tell is that you're in favour of protecting the poor, the vulnerable and the under-represented. So am I. However, because you spent all of the money (ask Liam Byrne, he'll explain that to you...), we can't do all of the things that you borrowed money to pay for.

It is our duty to work with progressives everywhere.

Which perhaps indicates that you don't buy the word 'progressive' either. If you were one, you'd have said 'fellow progressives'. Thanks, but no thanks...

Ros in the Lords: Motion on Turkey

Just when you thought that you'd had enough turkey to last you until next Christmas, up pops a debate on Turkey in the Lords, called for by Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece from the Liberal Democrat benches...


Baroness Scott of Needham Market

My Lords, I join the congratulations to my noble friend Lady Hussein-Ece on securing this important debate today, on her excellent introduction to it, and on giving us the opportunity to hear important contributions from across the House-in particular, from my noble friend Lord Sharkey, who I thought made an extremely good maiden speech. I know that the whole House will look forward to hearing from him again on this and other topics.

The Motion refers to the role of Turkey in international affairs. I shall address my remarks to one geographically very small area of Turkish influence, but one that has enormous strategic importance. I refer to Cyprus. The motive behind my contribution is simple. It is born out of a great interest in and huge affection for Cyprus. I lived in Nicosia and in Limassol as a small child when my Air Force father was stationed at the early warning radar station in the Troodos mountains, and I have been a regular visitor ever since, most recently in October, for the wedding of my daughter in Paphos. After that event, I took the opportunity to cross into northern Cyprus-at the invitation of the Government-to have a look and to have a series of meetings and to pay some visits over what was a very busy and interesting three-day period. I used the Ledra Palace crossing-which is a strange experience: a 500-metre walk in bright sunshine through abandoned, very quiet and war-damaged Nicosia suburbs. The whole thing had something of a John Le Carré feel to it. In fact, it is said, perhaps apocryphally, that modern-day Berliners like to try the experience just to remind themselves of how it used to be.

So what should be done about this long-standing division of Cyprus? It is worth reminding ourselves that Cyprus has been divided since 1963 and that the United Nations has been keeping the green line between Greek and Turkish Cypriots since then. It is not something that happened since 1974 and the arrival of Turkish troops.

With the ease of crossing, perhaps the outside world wonders whether it is worth bothering to try to find a solution to Cyprus-everybody is getting on, everything is all right. I believe that it would be a big mistake to think that way. First, for the people of Cyprus, all of whom are EU citizens, there is a high price to pay for the current lack of an agreed settlement: both sides live with large numbers of troops; economic development, especially in tourism, is damaged by a division which looks inexplicable to modern visitors from outside; and property markets are damaged by uncertainty over title. Perhaps most important of all, infrastructure decisions on this small island, which ought sensibly to be made on a whole-island basis, are being made separately. The most obvious example is water, where the Greek Cypriot solution to the chronic water shortage is to build desalination plants, while the north is planning a water pipeline direct from Turkey.

It seems to me that the role of the United Kingdom in helping to resolve the Cyprus question is absolutely key, because of the historic links of Empire and Commonwealth, because of our status as one of the guarantor powers, because of the strategic importance of the sovereign bases in Cyprus and because of our EU membership-and because we, above all, are the promoters of Turkish accession to the EU. That gives us a moral obligation, as well as a policy obligation, to try to move the impasse forward. We have to be sufficiently realistic to admit that there is now a stalemate in Cyprus.

On the Greek Cypriot side, there is undoubtedly an emotional desire to see reunification of the island. But the evidence is that it is very doubtful whether that sentiment is matched by any kind of commitment to reach a settlement which offers Turkish Cypriots the protection that they need; and the astounding rejection by Greek Cypriots of the Annan plan was hardly going to engender confidence on the Turkish side, which had voted for it. The acceptance of the Republic of Cyprus into the EU was a mistake and has left a total absence of leverage on the Greek Cypriot side to make any concessions at all.

In contrast, in northern Cyprus the most important factor is not unification but the need for security, representative governance and autonomy. There is a widespread and understandable feeling that Turkish Cypriots have been let down by the international community ever since unrest escalated in Cyprus during the 1960s. The policy of economic isolation for northern Cyprus is simultaneously creating an economic disparity on the island that makes unification less likely, which makes any kind of resolution less likely and is, indeed, driving Turkish Cypriots into a growing economic dependence, as well as a cultural and social dependence, on Turkey. It is a fact that fewer Turkish Cypriots speak Greek now than was the case in 1974 and that can only make life more difficult.

Yet, having spent a little time in northern Cyprus, it is clear to me that this policy of isolation, while hindering northern Cyprus and stopping it reaching its full potential, is actually not damaging it enough to make the sort of difference that perhaps its opponents might want. It looks to me as though northern Cyprus is thriving despite all of those problems and is not about to cave in any time soon to the pressure of isolationist economic policies.

It seems to me that it is high time for a rethink. First, all sorts of international organisations, particularly sporting organisations, need to rethink their current policy of bans. These things really do matter to countries. We also should accept the reality that thousands of people fly into Ercan airport but are inconvenienced by the extra time required for a touchdown in Turkey and the extra costs of flights. Finally and most importantly, the EU regulation which would allow direct trade between the EU and northern Cyprus must be implemented. This was promised to Turkish Cypriots and has been blocked since 2004. The Lisbon treaty now gives an opportunity to bring that forward. If this were to be passed, not only would the economic situation in northern Cyprus improve but Turkey would then open up ports and airports to Greek Cypriots, which would help their economy too. I hope the Minister can assure the House that normalising relationships on Cyprus, which is the key to unlocking the accession of Turkey to the European Union, is a high priority for the Government.


A 'Liberal Bureaucracy' public service announcement

Tax returns. "Yes,", I hear you say, "and what of them?" Well, for those of you due to file a personal self assessment tax return for the year ended 5 April 2010, the deadline is fast approaching.

If you haven't filed, you'll need to do so online and, if you haven't registered to use the service, you should do so now, as you cannot file online with your authorisation code, which is posted to you on application. So, hurry, hurry, hurry, and avoid the risk of a penalty.

Alternatively, if you're going to fail to get your return in on time, but know what your tax liability is, make sure that it is paid by 31 January, as the initial penalty is £100 or the amount of tax unpaid, whichever is the lesser.

For more information, head for the HMRC website...

PAYE coding 'fiasco' - what happened next...

A written statement has been made to the House of Commons by David Gauke MP, the Exchequer Secretary at HM Treasury and the minister responsible for HM Revenue & Customs;

I am now able to give the House a report on HMRC’s progress in resolving the issues on which I made a statement on 8 September 2010. Lesley Strathie, chief executive of HMRC, will be writing to the Public Accounts Committee and Treasury Select Committee separately today.

HMRC have been working hard to clear the long-standing backlogs of unreconciled tax cases.

Since September they have made rapid progress on working through the nearly 6 million adjustments needed to ensure that the correct amount of tax is collected for the tax years 2008-09 and 2009-10. By the end of last year in 90 per cent of cases where HMRC had received all relevant information, customers had received a refund notice or a calculation of overpayment in respect of these years.

In cases where an underpayment was due HMRC have sought to take a flexible and sympathetic approach to collecting the tax that is due. In the minority of cases where the unexpected bill has been caused by HMRC’s failure to act promptly on the information received, HMRC have considered claims to be written off under an existing concession (ESC 19).

In addition:

HMRC estimate that there are about 250,000 cases in respect of 2008-09 and 2009-10 where a taxable state pension has been paid by DWP and the tax due on this pension should have been collected through a tax code adjustment. These pensioners have not yet been issued with a notice of underpayment but would have a strong case for their underpayment to be written off in line with the concession. HMRC will not require these pensioners to claim the concession individually, but will instead write off all the relevant underpayments.

HMRC are working to clear the backlog of cases from earlier years. They will work all cases where a taxpayer is due a repayment for earlier years.

Further underpayment notices will not be issued for years earlier than 2007-08. For 2007-08, where possible, any amounts due will be included in the tax code for 2011-12 so that the money is collected over the course of the year through PAYE. HMRC will apply the same treatment to these cases as to those for 2008-09 and 2009-10. HMRC will not be collecting sums for less than £300 for that year and will allow people to spread payments in cases of hardship. Taking these concessions into account, HMRC expect to be in touch with around 450,000 people before the end of March to collect underpayments to the value of some £180 million.

The annual exercise to set tax codes for the 2011-12 tax year is about to begin. HMRC have reviewed the experience of last year when transitional issues with the new system led to some taxpayers receiving incorrect tax code notifications, and have conducted extensive additional testing designed to prevent a recurrence of these issues this year.

HMRC are continuing the process of modernising PAYE for the 21st century through the introduction of Real Time Information (RTI). This will help reduce the need for reconciliations in the future.

Cute little fellow, isn't he?

This furry little fellow is a water vole and, I discover, we have some here in Creeting St Peter. As you can imagine, I'm pretty excited by the prospect.

However, there is a catch. The water vole apparently live in our Local Nature Reserve (and the capital letters are deliberate). Unfortunately, the Reserve is one of the many things that the county council no longer wish to be responsible for, and they're trying to get parish councils to take up the reins.

That would be fine if we were a bigger parish, or maybe even a town. However, as a parish of just 260 souls, the cost of maintaining the reserve is almost certainly more than  we could manage. So, I've been trying to find out more about the situation...

Section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 allows local authorities to create Local Nature Reserves, on the basis that they will be maintained. Unfortunately, they can de-declare (Section 19(3) of the same Act), but the option to apply to Natural England for enhanced status as a National Nature Reserve exists.

So, it looks like I'm going to have to make a few telephone calls... 

When cutting your spending doesn't reduce public expenditure

Here in Creeting St Peter, the Parish Council doesn't have vast responsibilities. Cutting the grass, lighting the streets, enabling planning consultation, that's about it. Accordingly, our precept is small, at around £40 per household. The money comes from our friends and neighbours, so we're fairly cautious about spending it.

However, we are now being invited to take on new commitments. For example, the County Council want to cut the amount they spend on subsidising bus services. Fair enough, you might think, until you realise that their preferred outcome is that Parish Councils take up the burden. As a parish councillor, I like to think of myself as being fairly knowledgable, but I've never sought tenders for a bus service.

Indeed, I wouldn't, as the idea of a dedicated bus service for a village of two hundred souls, virtually all of whom drive, is almost absurd. On the other hand, a bus service which links a cluster of villages to the nearest town is a different proposition. We could get involved in such a tendering process, but it would involve coordinating a number of parishes. Perhaps it might be better getting one tier of government responsible for managing services across the area to do that, like a county council, for example. You could describe it as an 'economy of scale'.

If a service is essential, or valuable, devolving it down to a lower tier of government does not save public money, it merely allows you to say that you've cut your spending, and makes no difference to the council tax payer. here in Mid Suffolk, my council tax is split four ways - county, district, parish and police authority. From my perspective, if expenditure is cut by 20%, I should reasonably expect to see my council tax bill cut by 20%, and I believe that most people would see it the same way.

However, all that appears to be happening is a passing of the buck. Central government cuts the rate support grant, but my income tax bill doesn't fall. The county council cut services, some of which are devolved to districts and parishes, but their slice of my council tax doesn't fall. The district and parish take on more responsibilities, but the precept increase is capped.

Yes, it's a huge over-simplification, but if you going to get less in the way of services, most ordinary people would expect to see council tax fall in actual terms, not just real terms. It won't...

Another of the advantages of country life... vegetarians might wish to look away...

Doesn't this look delicious? It's a brace of pot roasted pheasants, the sort of thing you see on those rather fancy cookery programmes. The only catch is that they're quite expensive and one pheasant only really feeds two people.

Or not, if you live in mid Suffolk, where an oven-ready pheasant costs £3.00, and there is plenty of game available, supplied by people who shoot for sport or as pest control. And at that price, braised in madeira, for example, they become very reasonable.

As a long-time 'big city' person, I grew used to eating pork, beef or chicken. Lamb is a bit expensive, and anything more 'exotic' than that was pretty pricey. Not here, where you can get quail, partridge, rabbit and hare in the local butchers, all properly prepared, skinned and ready to cook.

And yes, I can hear the cries of cruelty, and yes, I understand that the creatures have been shot, but that's how it works out here. When I hear the sounds of gunfire in and around Creeting St Peter, I know that the local wildlife is under fire. In London, I then expected the sound of police sirens. The pheasants are bred, with bird feeders set out for them, and the rabbits and hares are shot to keep numbers stable in the absence of obvious predators - I haven't actually seen a fox in the three years I've lived here, whereas they were an everyday occurance in South London.

It's all part of the different quality of life that rural communities have to offer, not necessarily better, just different. I get cheap pheasant, but it's a bit of a drag to the nearest Thai restaurant. On the other hand, if I'm organised, I can have just as diverse a cultural life, whereas in London I could be more spontaneous.

Just another phase of the adjustment, I suspect...

More tea, Vicar? - a day in the life of Paradise-sur-Gipping

Living in a small village does mean that you can expect to be a bit short of facilities. Activities are community-based rather than commercial and they rely on the efforts of volunteers. So, Ros and I were pleased to be invited to a coffee morning and produce sale in the Church Hall, at the end of The Lane, organised by the Parochial Church Council.

Now, when people think of parishes, they tend to think 'Vicar of Dibley'. Ironically, the meetings that you see there are of the Parochial Church Council, but the concept is similar, church-based rather than quasi-political.

We were apparently the first through the door, and caught the organisers in the midst of an informal council meeting, but were welcomed with a cup of tea (donations welcome) and the offer of cake. And you know something, it was really friendly. I was able to catch up with a little Parish Council stuff, as we use the Church Hall for Parish Council meetings, and owe money for room rental - we haven't actually been invoiced, and our Parish Clerk is a stickler for that sort of thing. So, I suggested to Jenny, their Treasurer, that she bill us.

There was then a discussion about the burial path, and Ros's knowledge of rights of way legislation came into play. Ironically, the old burial path ran from the church hall in a straight line to the church, until the building of the A14 cut the path in two. Now, you have to cross the A14 via the road bridge out of the village to the south before heading along its southern edge and rejoining the original route.

The problem is that of horses. The path isn't a bridleway, and when horses use it, it gets badly cut up. Worse still, because it is relatively narrow, when riders encounter walkers, there is very little room for manoeuvre. Dogs make the situation even more complex, and finding ways of keeping horses off is proving to be a bit difficult.

And as we talked, more villagers arrived for tea, and maybe a jar of preserves, and before we knew it, there were more than a dozen people, some with children, chatting away, with our vicar wandering amongst them.

The hope is that they'll hold more such events on the second Saturday of each month, and I for one will be supporting them if I can. Ah, the joys of village life...

38 Degrees - failing to mind the tax gap

I note that 38 Degrees have started a campaign to encourage the Government to close the tax gap. So far, so good. Unfortunately, that's as good as it gets...

Starting with an implied accusation that the Chancellor is evading tax, unwise unless you've got evidence that he is - don't get me wrong, he's avoiding tax (legal, if a poor example), but he's using the tax regime perfectly legitimately. However, using as your headline figure for the tax gap a figure roundly condemned as a serious exaggeration by most credible sources is not what I expect from a credible campaigning organisation.

However, the tax gap is a big one, £42 billion, according to HM Revenue and Customs itself. However, just because it's big doesn't make it easy to close. The figure includes excise duties lost through smuggling, for example, white van man driving back from somewhere in Europe where duties are lower - for personal use, of course, and then selling them to his 'mates down the pub', up to major operations where millions of illegal or contraband cigarettes are shipped in. Cash in hand payments to builders or carpenters or electricians, or those nice men with some spare tarmac and time to relay your drive.

Individuals claiming to be self-employed when they aren't, one man companies where income is paid in dividends rather than salaries to reduce the tax and national insurance liabilities, unvouched or overstated expense claims, the little fiddles around the edges, paying untraceable cash, it's amazing how it adds up.

And yes, the Government, in the form of HMRC, could probably gather quite a lot of it. The cost would be a level of intrusive enquiry and fishing expeditions that would drive the majority of taxpayers to fear and loathe it. And when you achieve that level of fear, the enthusiasm for avoiding tax increases, and tax revenues begin to fall again. A bit of a mixed blessing, if truth be told.

So, I'll see what return we get on the £900 million to be invested in additional compliance activity yields before I get terribly carried away about the prospects of huge amounts of pain-free additional revenues for the public purse...

It's been an interesting day on Planet Bureaucrat...

My debut as Liberal Democrat Voice's new columnist took place early this afternoon. And having been the first guest editor in July, I now find myself with a fortnightly gig. I'm glad that I don't have to produce more than that. You see, the Liberal Democrat Voice team combine between them a range of virtues that I don't really possess. Think of them as the three P's...

Prolific. There is always new material for the discerning reader, on a vast range of topics. And for an all volunteer team, their ability to write, commission and encourage is quite impressive.

Partisan. There is an element of attack dog which I can't do myself. And yes, pretty argument of the intellectual contest is great, but occasionally you have to put the boot in. 

Pluralist. It is a bit easier for liberals to be inclusive. After all, we're used to having to work with others because we have little experience to governing alone. But the urge to stray towards ridicule is a hard one to resist.

So I'm proud to be a distant cousin of the Liberal Democrat Voice family. And on the subject of distant, I've been paying a visit to another part of the Revenue & Customs empire today, but that's a story for another day...

A Welsh councillor defects to Labour - not many hurt?

One of the disadvantages of having travelled the length and breadth of the country is that you get to meet a lot of people. Now I know what you're thinking, "He means advantages, doesn't he?". And normally, you'd be right. But not always...

The news that John Warman, the councillor for Cimla on Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, has defected to Labour has triggered a touch of regret on my part. You see, during the Presidential campaign, Ros and I went to Cimla, to meet John, Frank Little and Des Sparkes, and some of the small, but committed, group of Liberal Democrats, striving to keep an entrenched Labour council vaguely honest. They gave us a warm, generous welcome, and organised a short but enjoyable schedule of events for us to participate in.

John, in particular, had ploughed a lonely furrow on the council for many years, and I admired their determination, against the odds, in fighting on, when the temptation to settle for an easier life and join Labour would have been strong. And let's not mess around here, Neath Port Talbot is an old-style Labour fiefdom - when we visited, full Council lasted sixteen minutes, including a gracious welcome to Ros from both the Mayor and Leader.

So, whilst some may question John's decision to join the Labour Party, I can only regret the loss of a stalwart councillor. Not a big name, perhaps, but there are very few instances where a defection is welcomed. My condolences go out to Frank Little, Des Sparkes and the Aberavon and Neath Liberal Democrats. They're a decent, warm-hearted bunch, and they deserve better.

A twenty-first century tax authority - yes, HM Revenue & Customs is on Twitter!

httpI am somewhat surprised, although I guess that I shouldn't be. But it has been announced that HMRC will be experimenting with Twitter in the run-up to the Income Tax Self Assessment deadline. So, for your tax fix, follow @HMRCgovuk.

Curiously, they signed up on Twitter on 22 January last year, but with the first tweet on 21 December, and just 607 followers, they could do with some more friends. If you're an accountant, or simply interested in tax stuff, why not join the 607?

Merger with the Conservatives? I think not...

It is a sign that we may be the only ones playing the 'new politics' game, but I'm intrigued by the mutterings coming out of the Conservative right wing, and the conjecturing of the supposedly intellectual media that there will be some sort of deal between Liberal Democrats and Conservatives before the next General Election, perhaps even a merger.

Intrigued because I find myself wondering which Liberal Democrats they are talking to when journalists write this stuff. Nobody ever talks to me about electoral pacts or merger, either within the Party or without. That could be because none of us are interested - we're Liberal Democrats, not Conservatives or Labour. If we were either of the other two, we'd have joined, after all, it's so much easier to get on in the 'ugly sisters', with their safe seats, relatively vast resources and cosy media supporters.

No, for those of us for whom ideology or philosophy is important, being a Liberal Democrat is a matter of what is in our intellectual DNA. And so, presuming anyone was daft enough to propose a closer working relationship with the Conservative Party, I would expect it to be rejected by our Conference overwhelmingly.

And that is where all the intellectual waffle runs into the sand. Yes, I acknowledge that, in the Conservative Party, the idea that members and activists are consulted on big decisions is almost absurd. They're used to doing what the Leader tells them to do, without questioning why. But Liberal Democrats are different. We're argumentative, analytical, and sometimes, as far as our leaders are concerned, a pain in the neck. But it's our Party and not theirs.

For the most part, that is respected, even if it is discomforting. It's the reason why, at every Conference, we have a debate that is presented as a potential rebuff to the leadership, generally by journalists who haven't bothered to do anything more the peremptory research. And we debate, and passions are raised, and at the end we say "goodbye, see you next year". It's about mutual respect, when all is said and done.

So, until we see on a Federal Executive or Federal Conference agenda an item on closer working relationships with another Party, relax, it won't happen. And, if that day comes, and the Party votes to go along with it (both astonishingly big ifs, I'd say), they is clearly a body of people who would go off and form a continuing Liberal Democrat Party. And I'd probably be one of them...

Guy McGregor - ITWA (It's that weasel again...)

Yes, he's back again, and this time it's our local bus services that are under threat.

As Suffolk County Council continue their hapless mission to cut spending without any thought for the consequences, the latest news is that they want to cut £2.3 million from the public transport budget for next year. That would be out of a budget of £4.2 million, i.e. a 55% cut.

Apparently, young Mr McGregor is negotiating with officers and cabinet colleagues to save some of the routes potentially under threat, but he'll probably struggle. And, ironically, one of the places most at risk is Eye, in his own division, which may lose all of its bus services.

Now I will admit that some of the county's bus services are a massive drain on the public purse. Ros, a former county councillor and Lib Dem group leader, notes that some of the subsidies were as much as £12 per passenger, a level of subsidy which would be hard to justify in good times, let alone the hard ones we're currently experiencing.

So, for example, route 453, which links the Creetings to Stowmarket on Thursdays (one journey in each direction), could probably go, given the introduction of Suffolk Links Gipping North, a demand-responsive bus service not bound by a timetable. Originally intended to be a market day bus, it links our village to a market that now barely exists. And frankly, I'd rather travel at a time better suited to my needs than at a fixed time and day.

On the other hand, core routes, such as the 87/88 route from Ipswich to Stowupland via Needham Market and Stowmarket, or the 384 which links Stowmarket and Bury St Edmunds need to be protected, so make sure that they survive.

And, just in case Guy has forgotten, there is a cross-subsidy between school services and the rest of the public transport system. Axing those services that use vehicles that would otherwise only be used twice a day would increase the costs of home to school services - we're a rural county, remember? - and likely have an impact on the education budget.

But returning to Eye for a moment, their plucky representative on the county council has suggested that the county might need to talk to parishes to see if they want to support community transport. Well, we might, but we're all agreeing precepts this month for 2011/12, and without proper data, no sane Parish Council would risk taking on a potentially huge (in relative terms) commitment.

To give you an idea, if Creeting St Peter had to find £1,000 to subsidise a bus service, that would be the equivalent of adding 26% to our precept. And, under the new Localism Bill, local residents will have the power to veto excessive council tax increases. You did talk to your friends about this, didn't you Guy?

Sometimes, the sheer inadequacy of our county council leadership is enough to drive one to despair. Oh, and yes, I'm still waiting for your wretched consultation document. Or did you decide that giving us the information required to represent our electors was too expensive?...

"Wrong tax, wrong time", says Milliband. And the right tax, right time would be?

In the absence of any report back from Richard Grayson, it appears that the Labour denials continue. Yes, by all means oppose what the Coalition is doing if you've got an alternative, but until you've got one to offer, you might well choose to keep your heads down.

At every stage, Labour have decried the cuts as too fast, too soon, without ever suggesting what they might cut and when. And it really is becoming tiresome. During the election campaign, Labour talked about £44 billion of cuts. They weren't alone, although none of the three major parties were entirely clear about how they would do it. But now that they don't have a general election to salvage, all is quiet on the prudence front.

And there are only two options - cut expenditure or raise taxes. Obviously, with a Conservative Party averse to tax hikes, and with Liberal Democrats keen to take the poorest out of the income tax bracket altogether, there is some tension. But there are no Labour proposals on which taxes to raise, only protests about increasing VAT.

And on cutting expenditure, again Labour are too busy shroud-waving to offer anything that smacks of constructivism. No, we can't cut subsidies to public transport, no, we can't cut the Educational Maintenance Allowance, no, we can't cut civil service numbers. Alright then, what can we cut?

When you're as deep in the fiscal hole as the United Kingdom is, you need to act. That means either doing things better, doing less of them, or raising more money. And if every time you try to do so, you're attacked for putting vital services at risk, or cutting critical functions, or risking the recovery, without initiating a debate on what might be done instead, all you do is mislead the public.

You cannot have Scandinavian levels of public services and American tax rates, there has to be a compromise somewhere. And whilst cutting services is hardly a pain-free option, waiting for the markets to force a gruesome slash and burn of our public services and social welfare net will be unspeakably ghastly. Is that what Ed and his friends really want? Is power so much more important than the public good?

One of our County Councillors is a weasel...

Here are two pictures, one being a long-tailed weasel, the other Guy McGregor, the portfolio holder for Transport on Suffolk County Council. One of them is cute, furry and has a basic honesty of purpose, the other is a Conservative.

This week, it has been announced that the Safecam Partnership, which funds speed cameras across Suffolk, is in jeopardy because of budget cuts. If the funding is axed, the County will save £1.2 million but, and this is a big but, there won't be any speed cameras in the county.

Now, as a non-driver, I don't have an axe to grind on the subject of whether speed cameras are a good thing or not. However, I do know that, especially in villages, traffic speed is a very sensitive issue. And where those villages are on busy roads, such as the A140 which links Ipswich and Norwich, there are a sense that speed cameras save lives.

Ultimately, you have to decide whether the cost of maintaining cameras outweighs the costs of loss of life and serious injury when excessive speed causes accidents. Yes, you can argue that people should obey the law, preventing the need for cameras, but the reality is that some drivers will speed if they think that they can get away with it. The rest of us pay for their stupidity by paying for traffic calming measures, speed cameras and the like.

But Guy McGregor doesn't think like that. He is quoted in the East Anglian Daily Times as accepting that the SafeCam Partnership had been very successful, and hoping that it would be able to continue as a service provided by the police. Or in other words, it's a really good idea, and we hope that the police will take it off of our hands. Saving to the council taxpayers of Suffolk? Nil. That is, if they can afford it.

Because, lest Mr McGregor forget, Suffolk Constabulary will need to find savings of about £6 million each year for the next four years, all of this from a relatively small budget - Suffolk has some of the lowest policing costs in the country.

So, Mr McGregor, if speed cameras are worth spending money on, then let's face the music and pay for them. If not, then we won't. But please spare us the weasel words as you pass the buck to someone else...

Did I really hear Grant Shapps correctly?

For those who think that locking increasing amounts of the nation's wealth up in bricks and mortar is a nonsense, today's news that Grant Shapps believes that we should be looking for a gradual, but sub-inflationary, increase in house prices in coming years will come as welcome news. It's also one of the first intelligent things to come out of the Conservative part of the Communities and Local Government team since the election.

Combining this with reports that, without parental support to get onto the housing ladder, the age at which someone can expect to have raised the currently required deposit will be thirty-six, it is clear that something has to be done.

The idea of home ownership for all, a concept rather more alien to our European neighbours, is a nice one in principle, but if the cost of housing takes up ever larger proportions of household income, we have a societal problem. Combine that with a shrinking of the public and social housing sector over twenty years, the increasing number of small, often poorly capitalised, private landlords, and a pattern of building flats rather than family homes, and the issues are clear.

So, how does Grant get his wish? Firstly, there has to be an expansion of social housing provision. Giving local government the opportunity to invest in new homes will improve the social mix of social housing developments, take some pressure off of the private rental market (thus removing some of the inflationary pressures in parts of the country), and reduce the need for young people to buy, thus keeping house price inflation low.

And in a jobs market where loyalty to, and from, employers is increasingly a thing of the past, the flexibility that comes with renting rather than ownership should be encouraged. That may mean the encouragement of house rental, rather than flat rental, and again local government can play a part here. The proposals to encourage mobility amongst council tenants in the Localism Bill are a sign of positive intent on that score.

So, it appears that Grant and Eric may have learnt a few tricks over the Christmas break. They're still not off the hook though, and I'm delighted that Andrew Stunell is there to keep an eye on them...

Fantasy Football: Lib Dems in the Fantasy Cup - 3rd Round

Thirty teams out of one hundred and six made it into the third round, and with a mere 524,258 barriers between them and glory, Liberal Democrats were doing a bit better than expected. It wasn't to last...

So, here are some of the highlights from the third round;

Easiest victories

Ian Wallace's 'The Red n Blue Army' cruised past 'FC Riviera Luzern', winning 58 - 34, an excellent result against a team ranked 167,515 places higher at kick-off. Patrick Fancett's 'Winch United', faced a wild card, 'Vaginas Are Cool' (where do people come up with these names), whose late arrival on the scene meant that, whilst rated nearly 1.2 million places worse, on form this was anyone's guess as to who might win. However, Patrick's men came through 55 - 35 to seal a place in the fourth round.

Most effort-free victories

In a week when the average score was again forty-three, the lowest winning score was achieved by James Blanchard's 'Almondbury Athletic', who sneaked past 'Andy's Rovers' 29 -27. And yes, neither side is that great, but you can only beat whatever is put in front of you. In fairness though, 'Andy's Rovers' were ranked more than two hundred thousand places higher.

The top guns

Utter carnage amongst the remaining teams in the top ten of the league saw Carrie Henderson's 'Excaledonia' fall 33 - 57 against 'kadg', ranked more than four hundred thousand places worse, Andrew Emmerson's 'Team Extreme' lose 31 - 40 to 'citrus united', ranked nearly a million places worse and Amit Patel's 'F.C MI-LO' went down 34 -46 to 'champions elect'. I wonder if they will be, although as they were ranked 1,369,089 coming into the round, they're going to need a lot of luck to make it.

Meanwhile, Ross Hardie's 'RBC Rossendaal' comfortably defeated 'PostmanPatters' 47 - 35, making them the only team currently ranked in the Liberal Democrat top ten left in the Fantasy Cup.

MP corner

it was the end of the road for John Leech's 'Mike's Dodgy Beard', as they fell 43 - 54 against 'Fish's Football Team'. Disappointing really, as they were strong favourites on form, ranked more than 1.1 million places higher.

And finally, another classic Liberal Democrat underdog victory...

Quietly going about their business, David Camp's 'CamponFilm' had made it through to the third round despite being ranked 1,944,730 in the overall league, and whilst the draw had been generous, pitting them against two equally poor sides thus far, their next opponents, 'team ftw' were at least ranked nearly six hundred thousand places higher. It didn't help them though, as 'CamponFilm' made it into the fourth round fairly comfortably, '49 - 38'.

And the damage is...

Eighteen down, just twelve into the fourth round. And given that only seven of them are in our top fifty, it isn't looking good...

And so, until next time, cue the 'Match of the Day' theme...