This chart shows how the Conservatives have made tremendous progress in local elections since Labour came into power in Westminster.

All members welcome at St.Josephs Church Hall, West Street, Havant at 7.30 on the 28th March 2008. Refreshments afterwards.  David Willetts MP for Havant and Oswin Hall, Area Chairman will be speaking.

Stealth taxes were one of the hall marks of  Gordon Brown. Without a doubt his prodigy, Darling, in the Treasury has learnt well. Three days after the Budget, the Daily Telegraph has noticed in the small print a £500 a year hike in National Insurance for middle income earners. With petrol now retailing at £1.05 a litre , most of which goes to the Treasury, it is hardly surprising that the economy is struggling. People at all levels except the very rich, will be tightening their belts. The government’s much publicised attempt to get back to work, those wrongly put on Incapicity Benefit to lower the damning unemployment statistics, will not start till 2010. Darling has allocated £3.80 per benefit claimant to this initiative.  Its worth £60,000 at least to the government to get just one person back in full time work. Unfortunately, half of those that do go back are unemployed once again within six months! Small wonder we are now dependant on half a million Poles to make up the shortfall in our labour force.

The Labour Government has told councils throughout the land that they must provide free bus travel for the over 60’s, as from 1st April. They have provided the sum of £218 million towards the cost. The Local Government Association reports that several councils, particularly those where large numbers of the elderly holiday (Hayling Island?), will have large shortfalls as a result. That means the funding will come out of the Council Taxes that we all pay. As those are capped, do not expect services to improve. Of course, nobody knows exactly what the out come will be. 2009 Council taxes will reflect the real results.

All fully paid up Association members should have received their voting forms by now. If you have not, contact the office on 023 9247 5066 or office@havantconservatives.com  . You will be voting for which candidates we will be putting forward in the 2009 EU Elections. As the elections are run on a proportional representation system, the order in which candidates receive votes is also decided by your vote. If you find that confusing, get a Lib Dem to explain it to you. They propose that the system is used in UK parliamentary elections!

Hampshire County Council has proposed one of the lowest  rates in the country and at £999 (+4.5%) for Band D, the lowest  for any county council in the South East.  Havant Borough Council has done well considering  central government only increased their grant by 1%, while nationally average wages are going up by 4%. Their increase is 4.9% at £185.58.

The Fire and Rescue service increase is 3.9% and the Police are demanding a whopping  8.1%. This adds  £193.77 to your bill. The total council tax for Band D will be £1,378 if the proposals are all approved.

Government is ‘encouraging’ county and local authorities to identify areas where the new homes that this country needs, can go. Havant Borough Council will shortly be circulating an issue of Serving You with details  of the plans. To view a copy, click this .pdf file:  hbc-local-plan-feb-2008.pdf   A six week consultation period commences on 14th March. If you are concerned, contact the Planning Policy Team at Havant Borough Council on 023 9244 6539.

Well done, Jenny Wride and Mike Fairhurst, for the excellent In Touches produced for Bedhampton and Warren Park. They set a new standard which even our opponents admit are good.

The Tesco wish to improve their premises at Havant have been approved by the Council. This will please the vast majority. Friends of the Earth estimate a 60% increase in business! In fact the 60% will mainly be Havant residents who have  to travel to Portsmouth or Chichester to get the same service. There will thus be a a big decrease in car use overall.

We are told the old building will continue trading while the new one us being built. One can anticipate some parking problems though. Maybe shopping in the evening will be the answer. We will watch this major development with interest.

 

Congratulations to Hans-Martin Tillack, one of the earliest victims of Euro-authoritarianism, who has finally been vindicated after a three year court battle.  Daniel Hannan Report:  Tillack was, for several years, the EU correspondent of the German magazine, Stern. Before he arrived, the German press corps in

Tillack thought of himself as a pro-European, but could see that such deference was doing the EU no favours. In the absence of critical scrutiny, its bureaucracy had become self-serving, bloated and corrupt. Tillack began to expose some of the more egregious corruption cases, such as the story of how several EU officials had taken advantage of the poor accounting system to divert millions of euros into private accounts.The Euro-elites were furious. They expected such “anti-Europeanism” from British red-tops, but not from goody-goody Germans. When Tillack widened his investigation, and started to ask why the EU’s own anti-corruption unit had failed to act on tip-offs, they pounced. Belgian police raided his flat and seized his laptop, files and address books. He was held for ten hours without a lawyer, while his notebooks were confiscated, placing all his sources at risk. Even his private bank statements were ransacked.Shortly after he was released, I co-hosted a press conference for him to tell his story. Disgracefully, a number of MEPs turned up to heckle him, warning that he was allowing himself to be a tool of the anti-Europeans. Tillack smiled politely, and replied: “I am a pro-European. I want the EU to be closer to the citizen. But when their police were dragging me out of my bed, I felt they were getting too close to this citizen”.Last night, Tillack was awarded costs and damages by the European Court of Human Rights in his case against the Belgian state (just as well that he got in while there still is still a Belgian state to pay him, I suppose). But one question continues to nag. Having shown that they are prepared to impound records, seize files and confiscate bank statements, when are the EU authorities going to apply these techniques to the fraudsters, rather than to the people investigating fraud?