MP  Defends Local Business

 Jim Hood, MP for Lanark & Hamilton East, has been successful in his bid for an Adjournment Debate in the House of Commons Westminster Hall.  The Adjournment Debate entitled “The Royal Bank of Scotland and Small Businesses” will take place on Wednesday 10 March between 11.00 and 11.30 am.

 Speaking from his constituency office, Mr. Hood said :

“  Many small businesses depend upon the support of the Banks for the operation of their business.   I want to bring attention to the effect unfair bank decisions have upon small businesses, especially when they are providing essential local employment

I have been making representations on behalf of a constituent who was an established and successful business customer of the Royal Bank of Scotland, but the Bank suddenly withdrew from its agreement to provide funding. I am horrified at the resulting consequences to that small business, causing it’s demise!

I am writing to every small business in my constituency to find out if there are any other small successful businesses who have suffered because support from their bank has been lacking. “

ENDS …….

He is David Cameron’s right hand man, the second most powerful man in the Conservative Party today.  Deputy Chairman Lord Ashcroft, better known as Cameron’s largest bankroller, pumping £millions into Conservative marginal seats, including over £14,000 in Scotland – and may be the largest single donor of all time.

In 1999, when the then Conservative leader, William Hague first recommended Lord Ashcroft for a Peerage, he was rejected because he didn’t live in or pay taxes in the UK. It was only in 2000, after he promised to return to live in Britain and pay tax here, and with the personal assurance of William Hague, that the House of Lords allowed him to become a member. This week we found out that was a promise he never kept. 

Instead of paying tens of millions of pounds in tax, money that could have helped pay for schools and hospitals, Lord Ashcroft chose to spend his money on David Cameron’s Conservative campaign. 

We now know that instead of paying fair taxes, like everyone else has to in the UK Lord Ashcroft has been channelling millions into the Conservative Party to help them buy this election. So next time you see glossy Conservative leaflets or letters, pouring through your letter box, think that these expensive Tory campaigns have come at the cost of new Schools, Health Centres or new roads  in all our communities.

 “Take another look at us but take a long look at them” the words of Gordon Brown reminding the country that the general election is not going to be about simplistic slogans but about a real choice, between Labour and the Tories. Whether coincidence or otherwise there has certainly been further narrowing of the Tory poll lead that has now all but disappeared since GB’s statement.

 General Elections are about “choice” and the choice confronting the electorate this year will be crucial for this and future generations. The next occupant of 10 Downing Street will either be Gordon Brown and a Labour government or David Cameron and a Tory government. It will be about the economy and the country’s recovery from the worst global recession in 60 years and who best can get us through that recovery. In spite of protestations from minority parties, this election is a two horse race. Labour or the Tories.

 Shadow Budget Con

 The Shadow Tory Chancellor’s declaration of a Tory Government Budget within its first 50 days is an election con. They will use it as an excuse to refuse giving details of their economic policy throughout the election. Get ready for Tory generalities, glib rhetoric without substance or verifiable details.

 David Cameron’s opinion poll lead narrows to six points following a Piers Morgan interview with the Prime Minister. We didn’t have to wait long from the reaction of Tory campaign strategists. Conservative central were panicking and in a spin. It was not supposed to be like this.  Their response is to latch onto a book from a political hack with his snout in the trough of political diaries, whose publishers decide the best way to sell books, is to smear Gordon Brown.

 Since Tony Blair retired the Tory attack dogs have kept portraying the PM as a dour Scot, too serious and not the touchy feely person that David Cameron is. They may be right but serious times call for serious and single-minded people. The policy light Cameron with elitist beliefs of grandeur is no match for GB intellectually and he knows it.

 The Tory attack dogs are out in the smutty journals, tabloids and the airways spewing their poison of lie, innuendo and fabrication. The people of our country deserve better than that. The Tories could have chosen to challenge GB’s commitment to Fairness and Justice for all campaign; they could have told the country how they would grow the economy to get people back into employment and how they would keep the half million jobs already saved  by Government intervention which they opposed. Smutty Smear is no substitute for policy commitment.

 The election is creeping, if not galloping up on us and we will soon be campaigning in what has potential to be a very close and bitter election. I would like to think I’m wrong but all the signs are to the contrary. This will be my sixth General Election since 1987 when I succeeded Rt Hon Baroness Judith Hart and maybe having been here before allows me to be a bit more reflective than I might have been in earlier elections.

 This pending election has similarities with 1992 where the people’s wariness with the incumbent government indicated a defeat for the then Major premiership. Neil Kinnock went into the election with a considerable opinion poll lead when Major famously got on his soap box and edged the election with a small majority but was doomed for the next 1997 Labour landslide that rescued the country, the economy and Parliament from the disastrous Thatcher and Major years.

 This election is less predictable than usual and could end with a small Labour victory or a Tory landslide, such are the imponderables but one thing is crystal clear, it is a two horse race. The next Prime Minister of the country will be either Gordon Brown or David Cameron. To all the budding candidates for Lanark & Hamilton East I wish them well in their campaigns. I will fight them fiercely but respectfully whilst fighting for the return of a 4^th term Labour Government.

 I said in the summer that MP’s who were found to have fraudulently cheated with their allowances should face the full force of the law. We are all equal under the law and it is absolute garbage to suggest that a MP who breaks the criminal law will not be subject to its full rigor.  In 1987 when Labour MP’s were campaigning against Thatcher’s Poll Tax,  and some were refusing to pay it, the then Labour Leader Neil Kinnock told his backbenchers that they were, quote, “law makers, not lawbreakers”. Any MP who thinks they are above the law is delusional and not only should MP’s be treated equally, they should expect to face the full severity of punishment if convicted.

Irresponsible

 There is no way MP’s can escape any criminal charge by claiming parliamentary privilege, and the political elite which includes David Cameron know that. The Conservative Party, two months from the election have seen their  poll lead halved. It seems that Cameron decided to enter the affray and irresponsibly support the false hypothesis on parliamentary privilege. This  was another bandwagon for him and he didn’t stop there. He announced a government led by him would stop lobbyist buying access to political parties. This is the same David Cameron who dines with bankers and lobbyists at his Conservative Luncheon club, membership annually reputed to be £50,000 a plate. Alex Salmond’s £9000 lunch auction looks a bit amateurish by comparison.

 Statement re Legg ACA Review Report

 In his letter to me dated 12 October, Legg said I had made a duplicate claim for March 2007, dated 31 March 2007 for £1630. I now know that I had mistakenly dated the claim for March 2007 when it should have been for January 2007.

 I immediately accepted responsibility for wrongly dating the claim but there was no duplicate claim or overpayment from ACA. I was therefore disappointed that having provided him with evidence and explanation proving there was no duplicate payment, Legg decided that wrongly dating a claim justified his demand for repayment.     

With regards the MIRAS statements demanded by Legg from mortgage Lenders, my lender Abbey National’s MIRAS statements confirmed interest payments 2004-2008 (4 years) totalled £24,540. For the same period Legg’s letter to me 12 October confirmed that I had claimed back from ACA £24,280. i.e. £24,540 paid out and £24,280 claimed back.

 In his final report Legg asserted that there had been over payments from ACA in years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 (2 years) of £3783 and this figure should be repaid. I invited him to consider years 2006-07 and2007-08 (2years) where I had paid the same amount more in mortgage interest than claimed from ACA. Again Sir Thomas Legg reached his conclusions by defining his remit to look only for over payments from ACA whilst ignoring overall expenditure over the piece of his review 2004-2008 against claims.

End

 Sir Thomas Legg’s review of MP’s living away from home allowances (ACA) will be published 4^th February. In his letter to me dated 12 October, Legg said I had made a duplicate claim for March 2007, dated 31 March 2007 for £1630. I now know that I had mistakenly dated the claim for March 2007 when it should have been for January 2007.

 I immediately accepted responsibility for wrongly dating the claim but there was no duplicate claim or overpayment from ACA. I was therefore disappointed that having provided him with evidence and explanation proving there was no duplicate payment, Legg decided that wrongly dating a claim justified his demand for repayment.   

With regards the MIRAS statements demanded by Legg from mortgage Lenders, my lender Abbey National’s MIRAS statements confirmed interest payments 2004-2008 (4 years) totalled £24,540. For the same period Legg’s letter to me 12 October confirmed that I had claimed back from ACA £24,280. i.e. £24,540 paid out and £24,280 claimed back.

 In his final report Legg asserted that there had been over payments from ACA in years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 (2 years) of £3783 and this figure should be repaid. I invited him to consider years 2006-07 and 2007-08 (2years) where I had paid the same amount more in mortgage interest than claimed from ACA. Again Sir Thomas Legg reached his conclusions by defining his remit to look only for over payments from ACA whilst ignoring overall expenditure over the piece of his review 2004-2008 against claims.

“We must keep investing to help everyone back into work”, says JIM HOOD MP

 Jim Hood MP for Lanark & Hamilton East today called for continued investment in Lanark & Hamilton East to help people back into work.

Jim Hood MP said:

“We’ve got to keep investing in jobs through the recovery.  I am backing the Future Jobs Fund which will bring more jobs to the area, jobs that David Cameron wants to slash.

“In previous recessions unemployed young people were left on the scrapheap.  We can’t let this happen again.

“That’s why I support Labour’s guarantees – an education or training place for young people up to 18.  And a job or training place for 18-24 year olds out of work for six months.  Both funded by a one off tax on bankers’ bonuses.

“Extra investment has helped keep unemployment in South Lanarkshire at 4.7% – that’s nearly 39% lower than in the 90’s recessions.  We must keep investing to help everyone back into work

Figures released today show that in South Lanarkshire unemployment figures in the 1990’s reached 14,592 people.   Recent figures show that currently 9,081 people are unemployed in South Lanarkshire – as at December, 2009.

 Notes to Editors:

1. Figures are sourced from nomis – https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/Default.asp

End of the road in sight for car scrappage scheme

 With funding running out Jim Hood MP is encouraging motorists in Lanark & Hamilton East to take part in the car scrappage scheme

Figures released show that more than three quarters of the budget for the Labour Government’s hugely successful scrappage scheme has been used up by individuals and families boosting UK car sales and helping the car industry through the downturn. Funding for less than 82,000 new vehicles orders is left for consumers to take advantage of under the scheme, as it nears its end.

Jim Hood MP said :

“Time is running out for you to get a great deal on a new car by trading in your old one.  If you qualify and if you have been thinking about taking advantage of the scrappage scheme then now is the time. 

“Labour’s car scrappage scheme has kept our car industry going during these tough times and offered great value for motorists. It shows how the Labour Government is investing through difficult times to give real help to people and protect jobs and businesses. 

“We didn’t leave the industry to sink or swim during this difficult global downturn as the Tories did in the 1990s.”

Ends

Notes to editors:

1. The UK scheme, with £400m from Government and matched funding from manufacturers, is intended to provide immediate support on a short-term basis to boost the car industry and its supply chain during the downturn. It has also removed older vehicles from the road and encouraged consumers to invest in new, safer, and potentially more environmentally friendly models.
2. By 14th January 318,628 new vehicle orders were taken under the scrappage scheme since it was announced in the Budget in April.
3. Under the final stages of the scrappage scheme manufacturers will be apportioned order quotas to aid an orderly close down of the scheme.
4. Changes made to the scheme in September meant:
   1. Vans (up to 3.5 tonnes) registered before February 2002 and;
   2. V registration cars were brought under the eligibility criteria for the scheme.
5. After listening to the needs of the industry, Government provided an additional £100 million of funding for the scrappage scheme. This was approved in October and the Scheme now will cover up to 400,000 transactions.
6. The scrappage scheme figures are updated on a weekly basis, with all available statistics on the BIS website here: http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/sectors/automotive/scrappage/page51068.html
7. The dealers will do all the paperwork for motorists participating in the scheme and arrange for the old vehicle to be scrapped. The dealer will check that the vehicle being traded in and the new one being bought qualify under the scheme.