Category: liberal democrats

liberal democrats, organising for class struggle, sheffield, the commune

over a thousand job losses proposed by sheffield lib dem council

David Huckerby reports on job cuts and resistance in Sheffield.

Nick Clegg and local Lib Dem council leader Paul Scivan have claimed that there will be 250 job Losses for 2011/12 at Sheffield city council. However, this does not include the 600 current job vacancies which will not be filled, and another 320 vacancies caused by voluntary redundancies. Nor does the official figure include job losses from the knock-on effect cuts in services will have council contractors. Local unemployment is rising sharply.

A large proportion of the cuts fall unfairly on services to young people, children and families. This is in complete disregard for equality issues or legislation. They are considered to be an easy target for cuts. Connexions will face £2.4 million cuts in 2011/12. The axe will also fall on leisure and culture services. It is proposed that there will be £2.9 million of staff cuts in this service area. Altogether there will be a 15% reduction in council spending in the first year.

Continue reading “over a thousand job losses proposed by sheffield lib dem council” →

liberal democrats, organising for class struggle, sheffield, the commune

Lib Dems to slash council services

Barry Biddulph reports on Sheffield council’s planned cuts

Even before Clegg and Cameron give the detail of their savage cuts in their ironically named ‘spending review’, the Lib Dems’ favourite council Sheffield has put itself in the vanguard of austerity by announcing its intention to unilaterally terminate the contracts of over 8,000 council workers.

The gloves are well and truly off. Up to 40% of the council budget will be slashed in the next three years. Spending is to be reduced by £219 million, 15% going in the first year, starting in April. Front line services will disappear or diminish drastically. Continue reading “Lib Dems to slash council services” →

conservative party, labour party, liberal democrats

no choice on may 6th

by Danny Ryan-Smith

With an election with less choice than ever shambling across the horizon, most of our time not spent working seems to be dominated by the question of elections, or specifically- who should we vote for?

With even capitalist media and the introduction of presidential style debates unable to drum up excitement among the general public for a contest that most of us see as largely a race between three identical parties, the time has come that we face the reality that nobody can be a substitute to represent our own needs and interests but ourselves. Continue reading “no choice on may 6th” →

liberal democrats, school

nick clegg scared off school visit by strike

From Anti-academies alliance/TMP Online

The overwhelming majority of teaching staff at Crest Boys Academy were on strike to on Wednesday, 21st April. A planned visit to the school by Nick Clegg was cancelled.

The strike was taking place because E-Act (previously Edutrust) are making staff redundant despite recent reports of their Chief Executive, Sir Bruce Liddington, having a salary and bonuses approaching £300,000 per year and also lavish expenditure by top executives on luxury £300+ suites in hotels, mini-bar tabs and £250 pound taxi rides – all at taxpayer’s expense. Lord Bhatia, Chair of Trustees of E-Act, in its previous incarnation as Edutrust, resigned after allegations of financial irregularities. Continue reading “nick clegg scared off school visit by strike” →

anti-racism, liberal democrats

please, stop deceiving our community

Colombian lawyer Miguel Puerto looks at the mainstream parties’ attitude to Latinos in Britain, undocumented immigrants and in particular the Liberal Democrat ‘amnesty’ proposal.

London Citizens and the Lib Dems are for a very restricted 'amnesty'

The electoral campaign in this, our second country, is in full swing and with this comes further deceit, manipulation and taking advantage of our community. It is saddening, sickening, that our community is seen as up for auction to the highest bidder, on offer to the political parties who always combine against the interests of our community, as they have done historically.

These parties – all of them – have passed laws and directives in the House of Commons and European Parliament to hunt down and punish  immigrants ‘without papers’, holding back and closing the door on legal immigration and thus denying the existence of political refugees. Continue reading “please, stop deceiving our community” →

liberal democrats

a real alternative? the nick clegg phenomenon

by Sebastian Wright

Nick Clegg’s rise from shrinking violet of the political landscape to the ‘new Barack Obama’ (according to a Telegraph headline) can be attributed almost entirely to his performance in the the first British televised general election debate. With a foppish ‘I’m just a regular guy like you’ schtick that we have all been acquainted with since the early Blair,  Clegg’s only distinguishing rhetorical stance (we will get to substance in a minute) was his ‘I’m not like the other two’ line.

That apparently was enough to blow open the entire race. Albeit true that in terms of actual seats even Clegg’s phenomenal performance has not been enough to push the Liberal Democrats hypothetically beyond the 100 mark (compared to Labour who would still take around 280) in itself this has not dispelled the sense that Clegg has ‘shaken up’ the race. But the question is, surely, what and why are the media–and so it seems, the general population–getting so excited about this man? Continue reading “a real alternative? the nick clegg phenomenon” →