An Exclusive Look at a Candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green.
Dear Anna Racoon
I didn’t think someone like me could be a politician. I am second generation immigrant and came from a family with very few books where we were just expected to get out into the world and earn a living. So I was a really late entrant into politics – only joining the party at the advanced age of 39. However, all my worldly experience as a designer, businesswoman and ace nagger meant ‘have mouth will travel’. I overturned a 26,000+ Labour majority over two elections to win Hornsey & Wood Green in 2005.
One of the many reasons I got into politics was very pragmatic. I couldn’t bear the dreadful way the local Labour Council behaved towards local people. They were arrogant and incompetent – not a great combination. There was a parking row in my street between two neighbours. The Council’s answer was to come and want to paint double yellow lines down both sides of this very short cul-de-sac making life hideous for the eight or so homes without off street parking (I had off street parking myself). It was ludicrous to remove parking in a cul-de-sac, but they didn’t ask anyone – just appeared with the paint van. I stopped them, formed a Residents’ Association – and that was the very way things began for me in politics.
Truth be told, you will find that sort of pragmatic motivation amongst people in many political parties. What makes me not just in politics – but a liberal – and a Liberal Democrat – is a belief in liberalism, in freedom and in fairness.
At the current moment in time – with the country just coming out of a dreadful recession – that in particular means working for a fairer tax system and an economy that delivers the stability and prosperity which gives people real choices and control in their lives.
The Liberal Democrats are the most economically credible of all the parties and I suspect that most people would want Vince Cable at this country’s economic helm.
Vince warned against the debt bubble that would burst. We were the first to say that we would need to save Northern Rock and nationalise those banks. The deficit must be paid off as swiftly as is possible without choking off the green shoots of recovery – and our priorities must be about creating a sustainable economy and jobs.
Our general election campaign is based on four main points:
1 Fair Taxation: Our plan would mean the first £10,000 you earn would be free of income tax. Currently those who earn the least pay proportionally the most tax. How are people ever to get going if they are pushed further and further into poverty and debt? And it’s patently not fair or right. We would pay for this by taxing income and capital at the same rate, phasing out special pension subsidies for highest rate earners, switching tax from income to pollution, and introducing a mansion tax on the value of homes over £2 million.
People aren’t spending and the banks aren’t lending. So alongside our fairer tax policies – we also need a sustainable economy less dependent on one square mile in the City. We would break up the banks so that those that want to gamble – the casino banks – are separated out from the core, less exciting but vital day-to-day traditional banking of taking savings, keeping them safe and lending to local business and local people.
2 A fair start for all our children: We will cut class sizes and provide more one-to-one tuition to children by introducing a new “pupil premium” in our primary schools. This would cost £2.5billion extra each year – one of our very few spending commitments. It will enable schools, if they choose to use the money this way – to rival the level of class size in the private sector – and what a difference that would make.
It’s a big commitment – but education is the key to giving people a fair start in life and a chance to make their own way in life as they wish, rather than shaped by the chance of where they were born and where they went to school.
3 A fair and sustainable economy that creates jobs: We will create tens of thousands of new jobs in public transport, a national programme of home insulation and new social housing. It’s both green – and about the key issue of jobs. We will be honest about where savings must be made to balance the books, which is why we’ve identified big, expensive projects such as I.D. cards that will be scrapped as the first step towards balancing the books. Of the savings we make, two-thirds will go to cutting the deficit and one-third towards our spending commitments (such as the pupil premium).
4 Fair, clean and local politics: We will introduce a fair voting system, ensure MPs can be sacked by their constituents if misbehaved, return powers to local communities and we will stop tax avoiders from standing for parliament, sitting in the House of Lords or donating to political parties. It’s not rocket science – it just needs political commitment!
Anna – to get a sense of us – look at our track record. We seem to be in tune with what people feel. Think about our stance on Iraq, civil liberties, political reform, the environment, fair taxes, the excesses of the City of London and the rights of Ghurkha veterans – just to name a few.
It’s all about peoples’ lives and fairness – not telling people what to do but giving them the chances to make their own choices – the very reasons for which I went into politics in the first place.
Kind regards
Lynne Featherstone,
Liberal Democrat Candidate for Hornsey and Wood Green.
Edited by Anna to Add:
I approached a number of female MPs before Parliament was dissolved, and asked them all the same question – would they be willing to directly address the Blogosphere and tell my readers why they, and their party, should receive our vote?
We hear a lot about the influence (or not) that the Blogsphere is going to have on this election and it was interesting to monitor the response of MPs when given the opportunity to step off their carefully monitored and moderated personal web sites and spend time in the hurly-burly world of the true Blogosphere.
Ms Featherstone was brave enough to do so, she has said she will try to respond to comments on this site and I am indebted to her – I think she has broken fresh ground and I thank her for the faith she has shown in me in taking part in this experiment.
However, she was not the only MP who replied to me – I have more up my sleeve, so to speak. Stay tuned.
As ever, comments will be moderated for foul or abusive language. Neither more nor less so than normal.
Since Ms Featherstone has been brave enough to join this experiment – do take the opportunity to address questions to her!
Anna
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April 23, 2010 at 08:23 -
Sounds good to me, a breath of fresh air.
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April 23, 2010 at 08:33 -
I still have that memo, Lynne
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April 23, 2010 at 09:18 -
Thanks Ms Featherstone for writing this – I am looking at the LibDems for the first time and trying to understand their ideology. I am doing it as a Tory. Do look at my blog and in particular the peice i have written on LibDem roots.
My belief is that having read you, that your natural ally is the Tories not Labour – as you know that the state is too big and people are healthiest when they take responsibility – which of course what Conservatives believe. Where you fail me is that no where do I see any recognition that those who innovate and create wealth have to be protected and nurtured and not treated as cash cows. That to make money by creating private wealth is a noble things. And that only if you do this can the poor be helped. You will never do it by taxing the rich. And deep down Uncle Vince believes that you can.
The obsession with fairness is your second Achilles heal – when a politician uses that word, I know he is not to be trusted. And I have written about this on my blog too.
http://andrewrichardson-grumpyoptimist.blogspot.com/2010/04/when-i-hear-politician-use-word.htmlGet over your delusion about Thatcher – she saved this country from ruin. And see that Conservatism is your natural ally. And maybe if indeed the great British public want a hung Parliament – the real Liberals (get rid of the poison of Social Democracy and the modern Conservatives can do it.
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April 23, 2010 at 09:25 -
…I suspect that most people would want Vince Cable at this country’s economic helm.
This is where I stopped reading.
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April 23, 2010 at 10:07 -
I’ll have you know, Vince Cable has successfully predicted 17 of the last two recessions
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April 23, 2010 at 10:08 -
Lynne,
Which members of your parliamentry party would make up your front bench if you form a government? I look at the great offices of state and then I look at the likes of Sarah Teather, Chris Huhne, Simon Hughes and Lempit Opik and I have visions of ravens leaving towers and the collapse of western society.
Do you have any secret talent waiting in the wings or is this seriously what you expect to form a government with?
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April 23, 2010 at 10:31 -
I’d also like to thank Ms Featherstone for taking part in this and expressing her feelings. I don’t live in her constituency, but I’m still interested in the views put forth by the members of the different parties. I thought that most of the points raised here were valid, but will admit to some concern over number 3. I don’t think it should be the role of the state to create jobs – the state should instead try to create an environment that encourages private companies to create jobs.
Since 1997, public sector employment has risen by nearly 20%. This is not a good thing. While it is good to have people in jobs, if many of those jobs are in the public sector then they are a cost and not a benefit to the taxpayer. I understand that no politician wants to say “we’re making people unemployed” but at the same time, we only have so much money to spend…
Public sector expenditure accounts for more than 50% of our GDP (see for example http://burningourmoney.blogspot.com/2010/01/slow-death-or-amputation.html) and that’s really not healthy. We need to grow our economy to beat the recession and cut the public debt, and the best way to do that is to encourage private companies and enable them to do well.
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April 23, 2010 at 10:33 -
People aren’t spending and the banks aren’t lending.
Despite your phrasing these two things aren’t inclusive. In my instance I’m not spending because after my mortgage repayments, saving money for my retirement and other investments I have just about enough to live on. It is called trying to live within my means and I don’t want to borrow more money – just pay less tax on what I do earn. Lending money to people who didn’t do this is major factor in the hole we currently find ourselves in.
As for the rest of your ‘fair taxation’ policy, abolishing pension tax relief on higher rate earners doesn’t do anything but remove money from those who are doing the responsible thing and saving for their retirement and thus not aiming to be a burden on the state. Matching the tax rates means putting CGT up to 20 or 40%… I’m sure small business will love you for this. And as for the mansion tax, the less said about how pathetically envious and unworkable due to changes house prices this is the better.
We will create tens of thousands of new jobs in public transport…
Who will pay for these jobs? We already have a bloated public sector and unless this and the ballooning welfare state are subjected to some radical trimming public finances aren’t going to improve.
Overall it is pity that, given the invitation to address a different audience, you simply decided to regurgitate key sections from your parties manifesto.
The depressing thing is that I don’t expect any of the others that Anna contacted to be any better.
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April 23, 2010 at 10:53 -
Thank you Ms Featherstone for getting stuck in and thank you Ms Raccoon for being a conduit for this discourse.
“Vince warned against the debt bubble that would burst. We were the first to say that we would need to save Northern Rock and nationalise those banks. The deficit must be paid off as swiftly as is possible without choking off the green shoots of recovery – and our priorities must be about creating a sustainable economy and jobs.”
Vince has said a lot of things. People who hide behind the word ’sustainable’ tend not to know what they are talking about. DEFRA do it with agriculture. The Treasury do it with the economy. ‘Sustainable’ is a useful political word – throw it about with abandon and you can clamp down on any opposition views by claiming they are not sustainable. In this context it means nothing more than what the Government of the day decides to throw our money at.
We did not *have* to save Northern Rock. There was a financial services compensation scheme that covered up to about £33k of deposits. The majority of NR savers would not have been out of pocket by much. In the heat of the moment the Government was bounced into bailing out a bad bank, abandoning 10 years worth of regulations overnight and still having the cheek to claim the FSCS scheme worked as intended. The moral hazard is writ large across the Lib Dems as it is across Labour and to only a slightly lesser degree the Conservatives. The banks took the risk they should have shouldered it. Why were the public not asked if we wanted to shoulder such enormous debt guarantees and actual bailout debts? Why was so little debate had in Parliament?
The assertions from politicians that bailing out *some* banks was the right thing to do flies in the face of empirical evidence provided by Barclays. They found private money and St Vince all but wet himself that they hadn’t accepted taxpayers money and State interference. Why was he so animated at this when it was a business sort out it’s own mess rather than land it in the lap of taxpayers?
Parliament itself has badly let us down. It has not regulated the Government thoroughly and a lot of bad legislation has been the result. It has allowed the Government to juggle so many balls that critical things like quality of education, healthcare and the like *have* diminished. The basic stuff is being ignored in favour of a steady stream of diktats, spin and kneejerks. Neither main challenger to the Government sound and act any differently nor have said much about slimming down the state so it can do the basics better.
Fair taxation – with personal allowances you will always have the low paid paying a high marginal tax rate at the threshold. If St Vince wanted fairer* he could abolish personal allowances altogether and have a reduced lower rate of tax. Of course, this is to ignore the main reason why people struggle to get going – the welfare sytem pays too much and the cost of living is too high.
* A word as slippery as ’sustainable’
Education – would it be in such a mess if schools were not weighed down by petty administration, a national curiculum and teachers more concerned with social engineering than education and a strange obsession with computers? What has all that extra funding been spent on?
Economy – “tens of thousands of new jobs in public transport, a national programme of home insulation and new social housing.”
Are a cost to the taxpayer not a benefit. Government running a command economy doesn’t work in the long term because Government is useless at appointing resources efficiently. The Labour Government has been trying this. The Lib Dems and Conservatives wish to do so as well in particular with their eco-nonsense. We have long passed from a State that merely tells us what we should not do to one that is telling us every day what we must do.
Perhaps there is some irony that what prompted Ms Featherstone into becoming a politician was a (local) government that wasn’t listening to the people. Local Government dances to Westminster’s tune these days and Westminster dances to the beat of Brussels. Authority has been moved away from accountability and must be put back.
Politics – A recall mechanism that doesn’t first require Parliament approval would help. Why should it be for Parliament to decide whether the public can change their MP? That is to maintain the current status quo of MPs by-and-large representing Parliament to us rather MPs representing us in Parliament. If a constituency wants an MP out why should they have to wait?
An annual block grant based on distance from Westminster for MPs to manage through the year to meet their entire costs, funded by the constituency or local Government and requiring an annual published audit. If you can’t manage a relatively small budget in a way that local voters find agreeable have you any business representing them?
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April 23, 2010 at 11:13 -
“I suspect that most people would want Vince Cable at this country’s economic helm.
This is where I stopped reading.”
Yep, it was all downhill from that point ! Tell the delusional old duffer to try running a business, before he advocates increasing NI ! -
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April 23, 2010 at 11:27 -
Lynne
Well done to you for contributing, shame more candidates dont do the same. My local MP could be a Martian for all I know about him and his views.
However as usual your party’s polices are a bit of a curates egg…..good in parts.
Unfortunately for you, when I read through the list I don’t see enough good parts to make up for the other bits. (NB for next time around, putting the word “fair” in front of unworkable ideas doesnt make them any more sensible).
Fair taxes – good idea and one that other parties should adopt. But why only look at Income Tax? Why not not go further and adopt a completely fair tax system? Checkout http://www.fairtax.com for some good ideas that could be the basis of a really fair tax system here.
Fair start for children – nope. The Conservatives have the best ideas here. You should take off your statist blinkers and look at Michael Gove’s ideas. By far the best suggestion for education that’s been proposed in many years. I would agrue that food is more essential than education yet we dont have 100% government controlled supermarkets so why only government controlled schools?
Fair economy – nope. Governments dont create jobs, the private sector does that. Adding more regulation, “green” tape, targets etc is just plain dumb. Until you reduce the tax and red tape millstones round the neck of every business in the country there will be no increase in real jobs….unless you regard tax funded 5-a-day cycling diversity anti-smoking outreach co-odinators as real jobs.
Fair voting – nope. I want an MP I can directly elect, I want to know exactly who my representative is not just a list of names, I want local primaries to select the candidates, I want party HQ lists out of it, I want to be able to get rid of him if needed. You might note that the PR-elected Belgian government has just fallen – again. Not a fate Iwant for Britain.
As I say, good in parts, just not enough parts.
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April 23, 2010 at 12:15 -
Who is Vince Cable? This is a serious question.
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April 23, 2010 at 17:03 -
An observation relating to NI contributions.
Raising or removing the upper contributions so that more people pay at 11% rather than just 1% would be appreciated. If it was raised to £66,000 say then that would be the equivalent of 1p for more than 60,000 people -
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April 23, 2010 at 17:09 -
@JohnRS. http://www.fairtax.com is a search landing page and not a proper site. Has the real site been shutdown?
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April 23, 2010 at 18:51 -
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April 23, 2010 at 18:59 -
@SadButMadLad
Apologies, my fingers got ahead of my head. It should be:
not the .com site I gave you.
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April 23, 2010 at 23:36 -
I would like to ask why the Lib Dems feel that the public should not have the right to decide whether we remain in the EU, not an undefined if a substantial change is muted as promised by Mr Clegg (after all who decides what is a substantial change?) but now after all we the people who employ the MP’s should have the right to determine where are laws are made, and an in out referendum ASAP is the way to do that.
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April 24, 2010 at 12:19 -
“What makes me not just in politics – but a liberal – and a Liberal Democrat – is a belief in liberalism, in freedom and in fairness.”
Yeah, OK.
“Voted very strongly for introducing a smoking ban”
No choice, no exemptions even for private members’ clubs. How very free, fair and liberal.
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April 24, 2010 at 14:45 -
Nice lady, wrong party.
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