Political Parties and Elections

This week former Heads of the Big Banks are being questioned by a Parliamentary Committee and the Political Parties and Elections Bill is returning to the Commons. Our biggest hope is that all the debate will result in a halt being called to the payment of the large city bonuses being made out of tax payers' money. There has to be an end to the culture of being paid for failure. In the meantime small businesses are closing and individuals loosing their homes.

I am not hopeful however. In an opposition day debate in the Commons last week Liberal Democrat proposals for full elections for the Lords, caps on donations to political parties and stronger powers for scrutinising Parliament were all, predictably , rejected by Labour. The Tories, unsurprisingly, abstained. The current situation allows someone like the Tory Lord Ashcroft to be part of the legislature in the House of Lords and bankroll key constituency parties whilst not paying full UK taxes. He is not alone. The weekend newspapers contained substantial reports on how big businesses have used loopholes, aided and promoted by the large accountancy firms, to get out of paying tax. We can also hope that the two Liberal Democrat Bills in the Lords, on expelling errant members and ensuring all peers pay full UK tax, make it to the statute book.

As to the weather, well it is February and we should expect it to be bad. I appreciate that we get such severe weather so rarely that it is unacceptable to invest huge sums of money in equipment which will stay mothballed for years on end. It is however something of a disgrace that the train system should come to a halt at the first hint of a few centimetres of snow.

Individuals cannot be condemned for not making it to work when the public system fails. Many must have tried to work from home as there was also a substantial slowing of the internet system. Echoing my words of last week, if we are to invest large sums of public money to get the economy working fully again, they should go to improving our infrastructure.