John Hemming's Web Log

In the 2015 General Election the Labour Candidate criticised John Hemming for having an external interest and made a pledge that she would be a "Full Time MP for Yardley and my only other job will be mom & carer ...".  Here is a copy of that pledge: Since that point she has been working on paid Television Programmes and has also written a book. John Hemming has made no secret of the fact that he chairs the board of the company he founded in 1983. This involves one meeting a month. When he was the MP for Yardley he was a full time MP and the Job of being MP for Yardley came first. The Labour candidate has reported 1,274 hours of work other than being an MP in the two years she has been elected and her income in the last year was over £131,000. Ignoring the question as to how she reconciles that with her "pledge" the question is raised as to what extent her external activity conflicts with the role of Member of Parliament for Yardley. She is supposed t...

The Liberal Democrats have announced plans to address the housing shortage in Birmingham and build more affordable homes. There are currently 15,110 families in Birmingham on a waiting list for council homes, down from 16,130 last year. In addition, official figures show 4,397 homes in Birmingham have been empty for over six months. The Liberal Democrats would introduce a legal requirement for smaller housing developments to include affordable homes, make it easier for local authorities and housing associations to borrow money and set up a new government-backed Housing and Infrastructure Development Bank. The party would allow local authorities to hike up council tax on empty homes by up to 200%, including second homes. Local authorities could also choose to impose penalties on developers who leave plots of land empty for over 3 years, to tackle so-called land-banking. John Hemming commented: “Hundreds of families in Birmingham are struggling to find a de...

The Liberal Democrats have responded to a report by the Royal College of Nursing warning of the threat to patient safety caused by the number of nurses jobs left vacant. Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said: “The government’s public sector pay squeeze is driving nurses out of the profession and this is risking patient safety. It is a scandal that 40,000 nursing positions can’t be filled. “The Conservatives are bleeding the NHS dry with operations cancelled and patients left on trolleys, which is why we propose a penny on income tax to improve the NHS and social care. “Some 7% of nurses and health visitors – 22,000 - are other EU nationals, many of whom are also leaving due to the government’s failure to  guarantee the right to remain of NHS nurses.”

On the same day that the Liberal Democrats have announced a manifesto commitment to the NATO 2% defence spending target, former party Leader Paddy Ashdown has launched a petition to stop further cuts to the Royal Marines in which he served. Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said, ‘In an uncertain and volatile world, it’s our Armed Forces that keep us safe and allow us to play our part in creating a more stable international community. “Our service personnel are the best in the world. And it’s right that we reward them fairly and make sure that they have the right equipment to do the job.  “So today, our party is proud to commit to NATO’s defence spending target.  For all their rhetoric, the crisis in recruitment and their botched defence review show that the Conservatives have let our Armed Forces down. “The Liberal Democrats are the only party that can challenge the Conservatives and s...

The number of people waiting longer than they should for hospital care have hit a five-year high in England, figures show. NHS England data for 2016-17 reveals 2.5 million patients waited over four hours in A&E - up from 725,000 in 2011-12. Those waiting over 62 days for cancer treatment topped 26,000 - nearly double the total five years ago. Meanwhile, over 360,000 people have now waited over 18 weeks for an operation, compared to 160,000 five years ago. Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb said: “These figures reveal the dismal human cost of the NHS crisis. “Millions of patients are waiting in distress and anxiety. “There is a moral obligation on the government to end this shameful neglect and address the chronic underfunding of our health service. “Only the Liberal Democrats have put forward a ...

The Liberal Democrats have today announced that £1 billion of the party's additional health funding would be spent tackling the "historic injustice" faced by people with mental ill health.  Last weekend, Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron and Shadow Health Secretary Norman Lamb unveiled a Five Point NHS and Care Recovery Plan to increase funding for health and social care services, including a penny on income tax to provide a £6 billion funding boost. Today the Liberal Democrats announced that £1 billion of this extra money would be ring-fenced as dedicated funding for mental health services. This would help to deliver on 12 key priorities, including improving waiting time standards for mental health care on the NHS and providing support for pregnant women and young people suffering from mental health ...

This is the extra funding the Liberal Democrats are committed to providing for schools in the West Midlands Local Authority Per Pupil Spend Funding Formula Pupil Premium TOTAL ADDITIONAL FUNDING Birmingham £29,113,122 £79,674,219 £16,159,684 £124,947,025 Coventry £27,331,190 £21,114,102 £3,219,599 £51,664,891 Dudley £25,385,634 £9,337,914 £2,633,430 £37,356,978 Herefordshire £25,170,047 £3,574,375 £966,476 £29,710,898 Sandwell £27,219,062 £13,127,431 £4,047,985 £44,394,478 Shropshire £25,184,601 £5,337,029 £1,524,652 £32,046,282 Solihull £24,102,161 £4,193,380 £1,756,436 £30,051,977 Staffordshire £24,186,742 £7,575,260 £5,025,346 £36,787,348 Stoke-on-Trent £26,259,264 £1,936,277 £2,884,302 £31,079,843 Telford and Wrekin £24,725,666 ...

In response to a call by the Institute of Directors for the government to give investors a bigger say in executive pay, Sir Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, said: “Even directors think executive pay can be excessive, yet the Conservatives still refuse to take action. When so many people are struggling, it undermines confidence in wealth creation, which ultimately harms everybody. “Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for binding votes on executive pay. “Conservative failure to take action shows that Theresa May just doesn’t care. Even the Institute of Directors are to the left of her. Perhaps she is simply terrified because she has so dented business confidence by her insistence on pulling Britain out of the customs union and single market.”

In a world which is getting more dangerous it is important to look at how conflicts can actually be resolved. England has managed to avoid either a civil war or a revolution since 1688.  That is because people have accepted the constitutional settlement and that was a popular settlement. From time to time there have been pressures for change.  Those have normally been resolved through essentially peaceful means including a referendum in Scotland and Wales.   The Northern Irish Peace process was much harder to resolve because of the violent incidents that occurred. The reason violent incidents make conflicts harder to resolve is that they change the balance of a dispute from one which is to some extent rational to one which is driven by emotions and particularly the emotion of revenge. Violent incidents that result in the deaths of innocent people always create more anger than incidents involving combatants.   This often creates a desire for revenge amongst th...

The Liberal Democrats have announced they will invest nearly £7bn more in schools and colleges over the next parliament. The funding would reverse cuts to frontline school and college budgets, protect per pupil funding in real terms and ensure no school loses out from the National Funding Formula. Liberal Democrat Shadow Education Secretary Sarah Olney said:   "Children are being taught in overcrowded classes by overworked teachers - but Theresa May doesn't care. "This extra £7 billion of funding would ensure no school and no child loses out. "We will reverse crippling Conservative cuts to school budgets and invest to ensure every child has the opportunity to succeed." Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said: "A landslide for the Conservatives would allow Theresa May to take parents across the country for granted and cut our schools to the bone. "Only the Libe...

It is, admittedly, unusual to have a proper Marxist as the Shadow Chancellor standing for election.  However, as we now have one I think it is right to explain the basic problems with Marxism. There are two key components of Marxist theory: Dialectical Materialism and the theory of Surplus Value. Dialectical Materialism analyses progress into the concept of there being a Thesis, an Antithesis and consequentially a Synthesis.   The idea is that the conflict between the thesis and antithesis results in the synthesis. This is essentially an overly simplistic model of society which really does not create any intellectual value.  It encourages the concept of conflict which may be emotionally attractive to some people, but in fact is not normally mass conflict that creates progress. Challenges from competition and the desire to improve things is the main driver for progress. That happens best without mass conflict. The second part is the theory of Surplus Value Usin...

In 2010 the Labour Party ridiculed me because I asked a question about bus regulation in Prime Ministers Question Time. Buses are an important way of getting around the city that are often ignored by middle class people who call themselves socialists. The issue of bus regulation which is basically that the London system allows sector tendering, but other cities are not allowed this, is behind why this often goes wrong. In the past we have had serious problems with bus wars and that can be very dangerous although I think that is mainly under control at the moment. If I am re-elected I will continue to campaign for the West Midlands to be allowed to use sector tendering. Why should London be allowed to do this and not the West Midlands? Here is an example photo from bus wars in the past

15,430 pensioners living in Yardley will receive at least an extra £772 per year under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans to protect the 'triple lock' for state pensions. Thanks to the triple lock guarantee, secured by the Liberal Democrats when they were in government, the basic state pension has risen in each year by whichever is the higher of earnings, prices or a rate of 2.5%. However, the Conservatives have refused to guarantee whether the triple lock will continue, raising fears it could be scrapped. The Liberal Democrats have committed today to keeping the triple lock, meaning the state pension would be worth at least £137.15 a week by 2021, up from £122.30 in 2017, or an extra £772 a year. This would be paid for in part by restricting perks such as the winter fuel allowance so they are no longer paid to the wealthiest pensioners. Liberal Democrat spokesperson John Hemming said: "Protecting the triple lock will mean an extra £772 a year by 2021 for ...

Responding to John McDonnell's speech today, Liberal Democrat Shadow First Secretary of State Alistair Carmichael said: "John McDonnell seems to think it's 1917, not 2017. "But the Marxism we're seeing in the Labour party right now has more in common with Groucho than Karl. "Groucho Marx once said that politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. That could easily have been written with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour in mind. "Labour has failed as an opposition and is now utterly unelectable. "The only home for moderate Labour voters is the Liberal Democrats. We are the only party that can challenge Theresa May and provide the strong opposition Britain needs."

Pensioners will receive at least an extra £772 per year by 2021 under Liberal Democrat manifesto plans to protect the Triple Lock.  The party are making the commitment to older people unlike the Conservatives who have repeatedly refused to give the guarantee. This guarantee means the state pension is expected to be worth at least £137.15-a-week by 2021, up from £122.30 in 2017. Thanks to the Liberal Democrats’ triple lock guarantee, the basic state pension has risen in each year by whichever is the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%. The triple lock was a key demand from the Liberal Democrats in Coalition negotiations. Labour increased the State Pension by just 75p in 2000. Help the Aged described the 75p increase as “just unacceptable”. Labour had 13 years to restore the earnings link to pensions which Margaret Thatcher severed in 1980. The Liberal Democrats restored the link to earnings within six...

The NHS and social care would receive an extra £6bn a year from the Liberal Democrats, it has been announced.  The new funding is the first of the party’s election manifesto commitments and will be paid for through an immediate 1p rise on all rates of income tax. The funding will be ring-fenced to be spent only on the NHS and social care and will provide vital services with the money they desperately need until a longer-term solution can be found. This is the party’s flagship spending commitment and its first major policy announcement for the election.  The Liberal Democrats manifesto will set out a ‘five-point recovery plan’ for NHS and social care services in their manifesto. Liberal Democrat Leader, Tim Farron, said: "Theresa May doesn't care about the NHS or social care. People are lying on trolleys in hospital c...

One area I have campaigned on in the past and would intend to campaign on after the election (whether I win or not) relates to the judicial system. There are particular problems within the Family Courts. As it currently stands the courts rely for public family law proceedings on expert opinion.  That expert opinion is provided mainly by employees of the local authority.  Additionally from time to time other experts are appointed who are theoretically independent, but in practice can be on real or effective retainers from the local authority. Inevitably the recommendations to the court are driven by the management priorities of the local authority.  Those management priorities are driven by Ofsted who are required by central government to get more children adopted.  Hence we have a system where a key priority is to remove children from one family (for whatever reasons) and place them with another. It may not seem rational, but that is the case. Parents shoul...

Norman Lamb has responded with anger to reports that more than five million people could be waiting for NHS treatment within two years, according to confidential documents reported in The Times. Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson Norman Lamb said: "This is further evidence of a health service facing impossible challenges. “The inevitable consequence of growing waiting lists is that those with the money will pay to go private, and who can blame them? But others will be left waiting often in desperate pain. “We are developing a two-tier system, based on ability to pay and not need. “This is what the Conservative stewardship of the NHS means for people up and down the country. “People are lying in trollies in hospital corridors, and Theresa May doesn't care. "Only the Liberal Democrats are prepared to make the bold decisions required to secure the future of the NHS and social care systems."

Responding to reports Theresa May plans to push through a vote to bomb Syria if she wins the elections, Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said: "The idea that after months of disinterest and inaction Theresa May would back military intervention against Assad in Syria outside of a wider diplomatic strategy and without UN backing is deeply worrying. “Assad is a brutal dictator, and the use of chemical weapons is indefensible. “The action taken by Donald Trump earlier this month was a necessary and proportionate response to the horrific use of chemical weapons. However, we were absolutely clear that we disagreed with the way in which he conducted it- unilaterally, without allies, outside of a wider strategy. “That is why the UK must not rush headlong into supporting further unilateral military action in Syria by Trump. Undermini...

Responding to Labour's announcement it would halt NHS Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs),  Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Norman Lamb said: “The original purpose of the STP process was a good thing – to bring fragmented parts of the system together. But it is based on the fantasy that there is enough money to deliver this vision, when the plans are now hundreds of millions of pounds short. “The real question is: which party is prepared to take the tough action to increase investment? Only the Liberal Democrats will make the case for increasing tax to guarantee the future of the NHS. “The Conservatives are re-organising the deck-chairs – while the good ship NHS is sinking because they are starving it of funds. “Hospitals under the Conservatives will close because they are being starved of money, not for clinical reasons. That is a disgrace.”