Blame Lib Dems for lack
of policies

IT seems that the last session of Parliament ended early because, it was claimed, that there was no more legislation for them to enact.

The latest Queen’s Speech seems to have the smallest content since the last session which preceded a general election. Meanwhile, Nick Clegg is bragging that his Liberal Democrats can claim to have been effective in coalition by having blocked various proposals which the Conservatives had planned to introduce, including, “inheritance tax cuts for millionaires; profit-making in schools; firing workers at will; regional pay for public sector workers; scrapping housing benefit for young people; ditching the Human Rights Act; and closing down the debate on Trident”.

In addition, these coalition partners have blocked bids by David Cameron to restrict on-shore wind farms; by Eric Pickles to force more local authorities to put council tax rises to a referendum; by Bob Neill (when Local Government Minister) to change Whitehall funding formulas to provide more money for under-funded rural areas; and by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to have offenders caught more than once with a blade to be jailed automatically.

Most particularly, of course, the proposal by David Cameron to reduce the number of MPs to 600 with boundaries changed to create constituencies of roughly equal numbers of electors was thwarted in retaliation for a refusal by the Conservative back benchers to support the Liberal Democrats’ plan for reform of the House of Lords.

I believe that a lot of these proposals would have resonated well with voters and may well have been reasons for people to have voted for the Conservatives at the general election. I would rather that the Conservative Ministers had gone ahead any- way and put their proposals to the vote in the Commons, challenging the Liberal Democrats to show the nation exactly why the proposals did not make it into law.

From: Brian H Sheridan, Redmires Road, Sheffield.

WILLIAM Dixon-Smith is absolutely right about Nick Clegg (The Yorkshire Post, May 30). If anything has been more spectacular than the rise of Ukip, it is the demise of the Liberal Democrats since Clegg took them into the coalition.

Before the council elections, I was contacted by a man from the local Lib Dems asking if they could count on my continued support. I reassured him because of the hard work they had put in locally, but added that I was baffled by Clegg’s leadership and questioned his ability to hold Sheffield Hallam at the next general election. He shared my concern.

Unfortunately for the party, three of the most able contenders for the leadership have also done their best to 
self-destruct to varying 
degrees.

I refer to Chris Huhne (conspiracy to pervert the course of justice), David Laws (expenses related to housing) and Vince Cable, who appears to have been at best evasive about his role in Lord Oakshott’s move to change the party leadership.

However, it seems highly unlikely that many former 
Lib Dem voters have defected to Ukip.

Nor should Nigel Farage claim any credit if the dream of most right-thinking people, a European Union free from superfluous bureaucracy comprising autonomous nation states, becomes a reality.

The electoral embarrassment of mainstream parties in other European countries is due as much to troubled economies and the Euro as immigration.

This is why the likes of François Hollande are coming round to what David Cameron has been banging on about for so long.

For the first time in my life I will probably vote Tory at the next election.

Opaque on
transparency

From: Howard A Knight, Lyons Street, Sheffield.

JONATHSAN Isaby of the TaxPayers’ Alliance demands transparency (The Yorkshire Post, June 4).

This demand reflects the claim on the TPA’s website that “Transparency has always been at the heart of our campaign”. However, this can only be ironic, as the TPA has consistently refused to publish its own accounts. Even its list of sponsors has now been purged from the site. In comparison, North Korea looks open and accountable.

Vote Ukip for
tastier spuds

From: Mr V Platt, Hereford Court, Harrogate.

BEING a member of Ukip, I should have known. After buying Jersey Royal potatoes from supermarkets and being disappointed with the lack of their very special taste, “her indoors” suggested that I went to the local ‘proper’ greengrocer and tried theirs. I did.

To the lady in charge I told of my experience with the so called Jersey Royals. Immediately she said: “It’s the EU, a directive (but you’re not supposed to know that). The growers are now not allowed to put seaweed on their crops.” Apparently this is what gives the potatoes their taste.

The EU now controls almost everything we do, say, think and even eat; it’s a year to the general election, a long time in politics but please voters, start to think. Don’t vote Lab, Lib, Con again, help us to get some Ukip MPs into Westminster and bring some sanity back into government.