We are now in the home straight with the General Election fourteen weeks away and the bookies are predicting a Conservative victory here in Pendle.  Ladbrokes are offering 11-2 on for a Conservative win; Labour 7-2 and the Lib Dems, rank outsiders at 40-1.  That’s the bad news.  But the good news is that we have time to close the gap if we work at it.   

Stephenson’s campaign has been lubricated by Ashcroft’s money and I learned on 29 January that my Freedom of Information request, concerning the undertaking Ashcroft gave while being considered for a peerage, has been upheld.  In a 36 page decision, the Information Commissioner has ordered the Cabinet Office to tell me the form of the undertaking and to whom it was given.

This doesn’t sound like earth shattering news of itself, but I will use it to smoke-out Ashcroft and force him to disclose if he has been a UK tax payer since 2000.  That is what he promised. 

The story will be covered in the Independent and the Guardian on Monday and comes on the day the House of Commons is considering the tax status of MPs and Peers in new clauses and amendments to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill. 

As you may know, I had a Private Members Bill on this two years ago but it ran into the sand for procedural reasons.  Last year, I managed to force a change in the Political Parties and Election Act 2009 which stopped non-doms giving big money to political parties.  Unfortunately, the new rules don’t take effect until after the General Election.  

My amendments coming up on Monday would prevent non UK tax payers from sitting in Parliament and would be retrospective to 2000 - specifically to catch the evil Ashcroft! 

We already know of one tax exile Peer; the former Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party, Lord Laidlaw, who has given around £3 million to the Conservatives.  Irvine Laidlaw was “elevated” to the Lords in 2004 and now lives in Monaco.  He promised the House of Lords Appointments Commission that he would bring his tax affairs on shore but he famously reneged on that commitment. 

All through this month, the Iraq Inquiry has been taking centre stage with the former Prime Minister appearing earlier today.  I came to the conclusion some time ago that most of the Inquiry Panel are totally useless, Baroness Prashar is a complete embarrassment and a couple of the others seem incapable of thinking on their feet.  The recent performance of Geoff Hoon was woeful.  He was absent from some key meetings and gave the impression he was detached from the whole process.  Jack Straw on the other hand, announced that if he had taken a different view then we would not have gone to war.  He saw himself as a key player. 

Although I was always in favour of having an inquiry into Iraq, I despaired when I heard Brown offer to go before Chilcott  before the Election.  Chilcott had intended to suspend the Inquiry at the end of this month, but now, alas, it will roll on towards the General Election. 

Talking of Hoon, as I was earlier, he was of course the co-author of the coup that fizzled out.  They both badly misjudged the mood of the Parliamentary Labour Party and the wider party and they embarked on an adventure which could have done us much damage.  At this stage, there was never any possibility of dislodging the Prime Minister and even their recommended solution (a simple vote in the PLP) is outside the Party rules. 

In the forthcoming Election we have to focus on the positives and minimise the negatives.  It is difficult to justify the growing wealth gap between the richest and poorest which has occurred on our watch.  But we should not compound this by allowing the Mandelsons of this world to talk about getting the new 50p tax rate down just as soon as possible. 

And, of course, it does not help when the former Prime Minister takes £200,000 from the hedge fund people Lansdowne, who made £100 million out of the collapse of Northern Rock. They also give money to the Conservatives. 

For much of this week at Westminster I have been in the company of a group of Afghan MPs including the Speaker of their Lower House, Younus Qanooni, and another MP who was an asylum seeker here in the UK!  Afghanistan clearly has a long way to go before it can stand on its own two feet.  And before that happens, there must be some big political changes.  We need a consolidation of the 107 political parties and a crack-down on the corruption which is everywhere. 

Closer to home, health issues continue to catch the headlines.  Earlier today I met with local health chiefs to discuss the forthcoming review of Burnley’s Urgent Care Centre, the Ambulance Service and Colne Health Centre.  The review will be up and running soon and I made it clear that I expect the Review Team to invite the Conservative Health Spokesman, Andrew Lansley as well as Burnley and Pendle Councils to give evidence.  I also want to see Gordon Birtwistle lay down the candle he uses in his vigil and put his concerns to the Review Team.  The report is scheduled for publication at the end of March. 

Elsewhere, the big issue has been the sale of Brierfield Mills to the Birmingham based charity, Islamic Help.  As you know, I believe the charity is operating outside its charitable objects and I have the Charity Commission on the case.  They will be meeting the Trustees on Tuesday of next week.  The big question is where the money came from and I hope we shall find out in due course. The role of Afzal Anwar is still opaque, but with the election coming up he will have to explain himself before an audience wider than the Liberal Democrats.   

Over in Burnley, Burnley College has been sold to another Birmingham based charity who plan to open a 1,500 strong college for girls with 300 boarders.  This is outside the patch, but could have an impact on us here although the college would be independent and fee paying.  I have been re-reading material from Ted Cantle, the community cohesion guru, who wants young people to grow up and mix together and learn from each other’s cultures.  Precisely my view. These developments, in my view, are a very big mistake. 

There are a significant number of loose ends which still have to be tied up before the General Election.  The future of the Royal Mail is one and I am hopeful that the departure of Adam Crozier to the tinsel world of television may open up discussions which have been going nowhere fast.  The Royal Mail pension deficit urgently needs fixing.

29 January 2010