Archive for the ‘Strathspey’ Category

More and more business people and economic experts are coming on board with the Conservatives to show their support for our economic plans to repair Labours recession. Sir Richard Branson is a welcome addition with his endorsement of our plans to repair the economy and reduce the Labour created debt that is plauging our nation in so many ways.

Jim Ferguson

Sir Richard Branson backs Conservative economic plans

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Its great to see Struan Stevenson MEP campaigning hard on behalf of Scottish interests in Europe in particular his robust defence of our farmers and business who produce such excellent locally grown produce. His comments on labelling are essential for consumers to know exactly what they are buying.

Jim Ferguson

First word …
Welcome to the February edition of my Brussels Briefing.This month, in addition to my involvement in the appointment process of the new European Commission, I have been keeping a close eye on the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy while striving to seek clarity on the issue of food labelling.

In these tough economic times local businesses and farmers need our support. Locally sourced produce is no longer a fashionable phrase, it now relates to the very survival of local shops and businesses.

In addition,  the people of Scotland recognise the quality of home-grown produce and want to buy food that is genuinely Scottish. For too long consumers have been duped by products that have been mislabelled or not labelled at all. It is about time that producers are given clear guidelines for labelling. I will continue to campaign to have existing legislation changed to reflect the choice and clarity that consumers expect.

Join up here to support my campaign and help protect Scotland’s local farmers and businesses.

Best wishes,

Struan Stevenson MEP

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I believe that the future of our children and our families is at stake. That sounds a little dramatic but in reality I believe it to be true. Surely encouraging parents to stay together and assisting families to grow together and to actually have a safe future for our children is uppermost in the mind of every caring family across the country.

Conservatives have the unity and strength of vision to ensure that we re-capture the very essence of safe communities and ensure that Britain is a strong foundation and corner stone of happy family life. Everything revolves around the strong family unit and we as Conservatives are striving to ensure that Britain has that strength of purpose.

I believe the following video shows clearly what very ordinary families are feeling right now about Conservative policy and our stand to provide a safe future for our children and subsequent generations.

Jim Ferguson

Watch the video featuring Julie and visit the webpage listing policies for the family.

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I attended a meeting at the Inverness Town House regarding the debate of the Inverness by-pass. Some excellent comments were made by community councillors with some good discussion regarding the way forward.

Mary Scanlon MSP

Mary Scanlon Conservative MSP spoke particularly well and also made the point that despite LibDem MP Danny Alexander calling the meeting she had on many previous occasions petitioned the LibDem/Labour coalition in Hollyrood when they were in Government, all to no avail. Dave Thompson SNP MSP also highlighted some good points and I felt he contributed in a positive way. The fact that the LibDems have effectively done nothing for Inverness was something that had caused a great deal of frustration on this particular issue.

I also pointed out that these were devolved issues and asked Mr Alexander why as a Westminster MP he was getting directly involved in issues that did not involve him. I also asked him why he was waiting until the eve of a General Election to start to campaign on the Inverness by-pass and why he had not at any other time tried to speak up for the issues at any other point during his term of office.

I suggested that Danny Alexander was in fact using the Inverness by-pass as part of his political campaign to try and win popular support for his own personal election campaign in an attempt to get re-elected.

I asked Mr Alexander to answer these charges but not unexpectedly he refused to do so.

While a by-pass is important to the future development of Inverness it must be well thought out and take into consideration all opinions and feelings of the community that it will affect. The fact that Danny  Alexander has attempted to hijack a sensitive local issue needs to be viewed with a high degree of suspicion.

Danny talks a lot but he has totally failed to deliver on this and many other issues and only now tries to save his political skin by appearing to take an interest. Once the General Election is over, Danny Alexander whether successful or not will no doubt disapear into the void only to appear again when another election approaches.

This region needs real leadership and effective planning and not politicians who simply use issues to further their own attemps to cling on to office. I have no doubt that the majority of people attending were of the same opinion as me.

The time for real action has come and lets hope that it does move forward in a positive way with a cross party consensus on what needs to be done but the political grandstanding needs to be left out.

Jim Ferguson

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Gordon Brown’s death tax

Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley says that ministers are secretly planning a “death tax” of up to £20,000 per head to pay for their plans for a National Care Service.

“Gordon Brown needs to come clean with the public and say how he will fund his new National Care Service”, Lansley said.

“Behind closed doors Ministers are secretly planning a death tax of up to £20,000 per head which would be levied on the estates of grieving families.”

Lansley added that even this death tax would not raise enough to pay for this new National Care Service, meaning that Labour are also planning to take away cash disability benefits from the elderly and cut money from the NHS. “It is another top-down, bureaucratic, costly plan from Labour for which every one of us would end up paying the price”, he said.

Philip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury,  described the problem this death tax would cause: “When you die, a Labour Government would take £20,000 from what you leave to your children and family.  For those with the most modest savings Labour’s plans could leave them with nothing.”

In contrast, he said the Conservatives want to help people in old age so that they can “leave as much of their lifetime’s savings as possible to the next generation”.

“We will offer people the chance to pay a one off premium of £8,000 into a voluntary scheme to cover the cost of residential care in old age. So under our plans no-one would be forced to sell their home to pay for care.”

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Danny Alexander LibDem MP

MP’s and their expenses are under ever greater scrutiny than ever before and rightly so. Some are legitimate expenses and others are bordering on outright fraud.

I found it interesting to note from the article in the Press and Journal the amount of expenses claimed by a number of Scottish MP’s which were well into the top 50 as far as amounts actually claimed.

Danny Alexander is among the highest expense claims of MP’s at Westminster. It led me to wonder if all that money for these MP’s was money well spent. While the likes of Danny Alexander claim a large geographical area as the reason for such huge expenses claimed we cannot forget the fact that its not all fares.

Not so long ago he was approached as were all the local parties to make a contribution to the Blythwood food bank appeal that was trying desperately hard to assist the poor who had no food to eat here in the Highland capital of Inverness and the surrounding area.

I had raised close to £1000 of food aid which had also come from donations from Conservative Party members and I had thought that a cross party effort would have gone a long way to helping those in need.

Danny refused to help and stated that he thought it more important to talk about the situation than to donate anything to it.

Ofcourse at that time few of us knew that every piece of food that Danny put in his mouth was paid for by the taxpayer from expenses he claimed. All legitimate ofcourse. At least as far as the law was concerned.

I am wondering what actual worth some of these MP’s actually bring though. Sure they can appear in the newspapers and opine on this and that on a regular basis.

Danny talks a lot but in my opinion and many others actions speak louder than words.

Are MP’s like Danny Alexander worth the investment ? With a bit of luck we will find out soon enough once people here in the Highlands look at the real worth of those who claim to be working so hard on our behalf.

Jim Ferguson

North and north-east members in top 50

Chairman of Scottish affairs committee was most expensive in 2009-10

Published: 05/02/2010

NINE MPs representing seats in the north and north-east were revealed last night to be among the 50 most expensive at Westminster in the last financial year.

The MP with the highest expenses for 2009-10 was Glasgow East Labour MP and Scottish affairs committee chairman Mohammed Sarwar, who is retiring at the general election – expected in May.

He racked up £192,986 in second homes allowance claims, travel expenses, office costs, computer costs and staff pay.

But his example was closely followed by MPs north of the central belt.

Moray MP Angus Robertson, ranked third most costly, last night defended his £188,164 claim. He said it was partly caused by the extra expense resulting from opening a second constituency office at Keith, and partly high travel costs.

He said: “Given the unpredictability of parliamentary schedules, weekly commuting arrangements often have to be made at short notice, which sadly adds to the travel costs.

“Constituents rightly expect you to attend to issues and events locally as well as with matters at Westminster on a weekly basis.”

He added: “The biggest cost saving from Westminster will come when Scotland is independent and we don’t need to send MPs there at all. I am focused on making that happen as quickly as possible.

At just £539 a year lower, Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander, also blamed travel costs, driving round one of the biggest constituencies in the UK and commuting back and forth between Inverness and London.

Linlithgow and Falkirk East Labour MP Michael Connarty and Falkirk Labour MP Eric Joyce, at fourth and fifth, were only a few pence less.

Mr Joyce — frequently at or near the top of the expenses league — also cited travel between his home in Falkirk and London as the reason his expenses remain high, pointing out that MPs have to fly on expensive open tickets because they do not know their arrangements very far ahead.

Aberdeen North MP Frank Doran came in at No 12 in the table, claiming £182,139.

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Lib Dem MP John Thurso, at No 22, claimed £178,689, Dundee West Labour MP Jim McGovern, 23, £178,597, and Gordon Lib Dem MP Malcolm Bruce, 24, £178,230.

Perth and North Perthshire SNP MP Pete Wishart was 34th with £175,896.

The cheapest was First Minister Alex Salmond, also SNP MP for Banff and Buchan, 533rd, but he rarely appeared in Westminster, claiming £131,316, mainly in staff costs. Western Isles SNP MP Angus MacNeil was 431st, claiming £141,583.

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As you would expect I am no fan of Gordon Brown or this lunatic Labour Government. However I am seriously of the growing opinion that Gordon Brown is simply in denial over much of this failed Labour Governmenst’s lack of ability and understanding in dealing with what is crystal clear to the vast majority of people all across the UK.

This is symptomatic of Brown and his lack lustre cronies and hangons in the cabinet who between them wouldent know common sense if it jumped up and bit them on their behind !

Defence of the nation is paramount in these uncertain times and to have such appalling lack of understanding on simple basics as we can see from the report below is shocking and very alarming.

I dont know who we should fear the most. Al -Qaeda or another term of Labour. Frankly its my honest belief that the latter would be more of a threat to and do more damage to Britain. Probably already have !

Jim Ferguson

Brown still in denial over defence black hole

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox has responded to the publication of the Government’s defence Green Paper.

“Bob Ainsworth deserves genuine praise for his attempts to find a cross party consensus. This Green Paper indicates that the MoD is coming out of denial but the Prime Minister is not”, he said.

Fox criticised Gordon Brown for “undermining a Secretary of State on the front page of the Times”, contrasting the Defence Secretary’s defence cut backs in December with the Prime Minister’s announcement of defence increases this week.

He also criticised the Prime Minister’s office for “briefing that any project that has job implications for the Prime Minister’s constituency will be spared”.

Fox said he agreed that France and the United States are likely to be our main strategic partners, but added that there were two tests: ”Do they invest in defence? And do they fight?  Too few European allies pass both these tests.”

And he called on the Government to “give honest answers about the implications of the cost overruns in the years ahead”, given that – unlike the Opposition and the House of Commons - it has access to all the costs of the contracts and penalty clauses for the major programmes.

Later on, Fox called on Gordon Brown to apologise for misleading the House of Commons. At Prime Minister’s Questions he repeatedly made the allegation that the Conservatives pledged to cut defence spending at the 2005 election, when the manifesto was committed to a £2.7bn increase in frontline spending.

Read Liam Fox’s speech in Parliament in response to the Secretary of State’s statement

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I was particularly interested to see the announcement of superfast broadband which a Conservative Government will introduce. Clearly business and so many individuals now use the internet that it has become an essential way to do business and has opened up so many opertunities especially for home working.

Living in the Highlands of Scotland in a very rural area has its limitations as far as working in relation to the internet and doing business online goes and this announcement is a very welcome one indeed.

This is indeed the way forward and will help boost our economy and market share on a global basis.

Jim Ferguson

Nationwide superfast broadband by 2017

Monday, February 1 2010

As part of our plans to Get Britain Growing, the Conservatives have unveiled plans to help make the UK the first major European country that has superfast broadband in the majority of homes by 2017.

Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport said “we are currently one of the slowest countries in the developed world for broadband”, but with the Conservatives “we’ll become one of the fastest”.

He said Britain’s digital and creative industries “must have a proper communications infrastructure” if they are to become “world beaters”.

The Conservative approach to achieving this has three key components:

• We will create a regulatory framework to ensure the roll-out of superfast broadband at speeds of up to 100mbps to the majority of homes across the UK by 2017. This could involve either mobile or fixed line solutions and will be significantly faster than the Government’s proposed target. Our objective is to make the UK the first major European country to achieve this aim, securing its place as a European and global hub for the creative industries.
• We will end BT’s local loop monopoly by allowing other operators to use their ducts and poles thereby encouraging competition in the superfast broadband market. This approach has proved successful in other countries such as Singapore and South Korea: these countries are global leaders in superfast broadband infrastructure.
• We are committed to universal access to superfast broadband speeds. If the market does not deliver this in certain areas we will consider using the proportion of the licence fee dedicated to digital switchover to finance superfast broadband roll out under the new BBC licence fee settlement, starting in 2012. This amount would be leveraged to maximise the investment made, either by making it available as loans or on a matched funding basis.

Under these plans, Hunt said that “high speeds will be available not just in our cities but across the rural areas that have been left behind for too long”.

“These regulatory changes will create the right conditions for sustainable growth and ensure that the digital sector plays a leading role in a competitive, balanced economy”, he added.

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Soft touch justice by this Labour Government is getting out of control and putting members of the public at serious risk. Whether its Labour or the inadequate policies of the SNP administration in Scotland all across the UK we see examples of mind boggling stupidity. The fact that highly dangerous criminals are being allowed out to harm innocent members of the public must be stopped.

In Scotland things are no better. With equal stupidity Kenny MacAskill the Justice minister is mired in scandal after scandal yet refuses to listen to people alarmed and disgusted at the SNP policies where the odds always seem to be in favour of the criminal.

I am confident that a Conservative Government will restore the balance and get common sense back into policy that will properly protect members of the public and put a stop to the mockery of the Justice system.

Jim Ferguson

Twenty killers on the run

Friday, January 29 2010

Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Justice Secretary, has responded to news that 754 offenders recalled to prison after breaching the terms of their licence are still at large or unaccounted for.

Amongst the missing offenders are seventeen murderers, and three people convicted of manslaughter.

They also include nine rapists, six paedophiles, ten other sex offenders, seventy burglars, and seventy-five people convicted of robbery.

Grieve said that people “will be understandably concerned to learn that so many murderers, rapists and sex offenders who should be in prison are still at large”.

“Labour’s policy of releasing prisoners early with inadequate supervision is putting the public at risk”, he added.

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Gordon Brown’s legacy will be the Great Recession

Commenting on the news that the UK is the last G20 economy to leave the recession, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said “Gordon Brown’s promise that Britain would lead the world out of recession lies in tatters”.

“We were one of the first in and now, today, we are the last out. Gordon Brown’s legacy will be the Great Recession.”

Not only is the UK the last G20 economy to leave the recession, but:

• The UK was one of the first countries to enter recession, and the last G20 country out.
• Some countries emerged nine months ago.
• The pound has fallen significantly against other major currencies.

Osborne added that a key reason for this was that “Gordon Brown’s decisions as Chancellor left Britain ill-prepared and his judgements as Prime Minister made the recession even worse.”

The Conservatives have published a document explaining how Gordon Brown made the recession worse – you can read it in full below.

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