As I Was Saying ...............

Written by Geoff Seeff on Sun 31st Aug 2008

This article is the first in a series written by Geoff Seeff, the prospective Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green in the run up to the forthcoming General Election, expected in May 2010. It is published on the website of the Chingford and Woodford Green Liberal Democrats

Given the declining popularity of the Brown administration in the face of a myriad of problems, many self created, and the natural inclination for human beings enjoying the trappings of power to cling to office for as long as possible in the Micawberish hope that "something will turn up", it is not unreasonable to assume that the next general election will be held in May 2010 when the present mandate expires. From now until then, it is my intention in this series of monthly articles to offer an informal and "sideways" view of the national and local political scene. If you have the constitution to bear with me you will certainly find out quite a lot about my life, my attitudes and opinions, of which I have no shortage, and I hope we are going to become good friends. However, I guess, before anything else, I should introduce myself properly - I would not like you to think I have forgotten my manners.

Me Slaving Over A Hot Computer

A post war baby boomer, I was born to a "working class" family in August 1947. As you will quickly work out that makes me 61 - an age when that family of mine would have thought that it was about time to join the "non-working class". But I am far from being ready to put my feet up just yet. At the coming of age celebrations a year ago I declared to all and sundry that getting to 60 felt a damn sight better than I thought it was going to be when I was 16 - 60 was indeed the new 40 and I danced the night away! The following day I was rewarded for my smugness with a king sized back ache that laid me flat out for a full week.

That aside, on the whole I am lucky enough to be reasonably fit, training (for what, I am not sure) at the gym (irregularly, and rarely with much enthusiasm) and swimming (regularly, and with rather more enthusiasm)) a kilometre three or four times a week, albeit not at a speed to worry Michael Phelps. Doing the bidding of the lovely Mrs Seeff, my wife, Deanna, and our two daughters, keeps me on my toes in most other respects.

Ah, so you want know about my vices. Well I don't smoke (gave it up when I was 9), I do drink (started when I gave up smoking), don't go with strange women or men (only normal ones……) and I love song (providing it was written before 1963, as I am afraid that I detest intensely most, though not all, of what has since passed for "pop" music, particularly if played loudly in public places). Having said that, I would fight, possibly to the death, for your right to smoke pretty well anything you want (but not in a confined space or if, as a result, you become a danger to others); not to drink if you don't want to (but think of the economic consequences if we all gave up alcohol!); to be with who you want to be with, providing you are consenting adults, don't frighten the horses or interfere with the liberty of others; and, of course, to listen to all the music you want - providing it's not played loudly in a public place at which I am present.

Of Jewish parentage, I am an avowed atheist, believing that no man - and I mean no man or women be he or she saint or sinner, anointed Pope, Chief Rabbi, Archbishop or Prime Minister - can conceptualise what we call "god", so it really doesn't matter whether or not one (or more) exists. The purpose of our lives is to help create a materially comfortable, intellectually stimulating and peaceful world from the rich environment we find ourselves in and it is not to worry about following the dictates of an imagined deity or to waste time and energy in unheard worship and prayers. Having said that I would fight, possibly to the death, for your right to practise the religion you want, where you want and how you want, always providing it did not interfere with the rights of others not to follow your creed. The moral code of the "holy" books deserves by and large to be respected but my one commandment would be "Do not destroy…anything!"…… living, natural, built, relationship, culture etc without making absolutely sure you are putting something better in its place. I know, that leaves plenty of room for debate.

From the age of 9 (about the time I gave up smoking……) it was always assumed that I would become an accountant. I used to go "train spotting" with my school friends but, not knowing what to do with the numbers of the trains I had spotted, I used to add them up - almost certainly accurately, which makes it even worse. In fact what I really wanted to be at that age was a knife thrower in a circus - but that, as they say, is another story. One thing was for sure, from the day I became an articled clerk (what a Dickensian term) I realised that the last thing in the world I wanted to be was an auditor and when I qualified, four painful years later, I decided to become a jazz musician. It turns out that the last thing the world wanted was for me to be a musician of any sort. The most immediate reason was an acute lack of talent on my part, but there were plenty of other factors. For one thing there was no shortage of musicians with considerable talent - most of whom were on the dole and starving. The second thing was that this was the brave new musical world of the sixties - the pre 1963 music I was interested in playing was definitely not in vogue and, unless you had long hair (no matter how hard I tried, mine refused to grow lower than ear level and simply perched as an unruly mop on the top of my head - as you can see from the photos, it would be no bad thing if it did that now), and could swivel your hips whilst strumming the obligatory three chords on a guitar, you were destined for oblivion. If I happened to mention casually (and I usually did) as part of a chat up routine that I played the tenor sax and violin, the inevitable response was not the breathless sigh of admiration that I hoped for but a comment along the lines "Ugh, but I think my dad likes Glenn Miller". Funnily enough if I now happen to mention casually ………to women of a certain age, the response is more likely to be "Oooh, I think that the tenor sax is the coolest, sexiest instrument imaginable". Where were you girls when I was 21?

For a while I did enjoy some moderate success on the WBF circuit (weddings, bahmitzvahs and funerals - if it wasn't a funeral to begin with we could be guaranteed to soon turn it into one) and, if this period didn't provide me with sufficient funds, it at least provided a fund of hilarious stories to tell my grandchildren - or anyone else who I can force to listen.

They say that a gentleman is someone who can play the saxophone, but doesn't. Gentleman or not, this is a picture of me, taken recently, as I like to think of myself - swinging gently away to a bossa nova al la Getz (you'll have to take my word for it!). Now if you were desperate to hear me in musical action you could come and listen to me leading the Woodford Wheezards at the forthcoming Woodford Festival at the beginning of October (for details visit www.woodfordfestival.com) in which we will be opening the proceedings at, wait for it, Waitrose South Woodford (someone has to) and performing in concert (well OK, having a jam) at the White Hart on Chigwell Road.

I sense that you have now had more than enough of my meanderings and want me to get on with the substance of my paper. However, I will just briefly bring my potted life story up to date, so as not to leave you, as it were, suspended around my misspent youth. Following the disappointment of a failed or rather non-musical career, and a six month stint as an accountant with an hotel group in East Africa (wonderful!), I undertook doctoral research at Birmingham, investigating the field of what is today called "Corporate Social Responsibility" or CSR - and you can imagine how popular that was in the 1970s! I then joined a major management consultancy practice, whose senior partner, on learning that I was an advocate of CSR, promptly locked me in a cupboard and refused to let me out until I had promised never to mention these dreaded letters in that order to any client. Trained up in their methods I travelled the globe advising people how to run their businesses in ways I would never dream of doing myself and eventually, after a period on secondment to the Department of the Environment in the mid eighties, I ended up as a specialist adviser on the economics of urban regeneration - work I still do currently and which I thoroughly enjoy.

Politics has been an essential part of my life since 1981 when I became the convener for the Redbridge SDP - I had joined a movement called Campaign for Social Democracy in 1974 when my hero, Dick, now Lord, Taverne, broke away from the Labour Party. On that basis I suppose I was not a "political virgin" but there really was something exciting, magical, euphoric about those heady days when we thought we were creating a new order and breaking the two party duopoly that was (and regretfully even today, is) so adversarial and so divisive.I have fought, or at least my name has gone forward, in many many local council, regional and general elections since that time, and, so far, I have been phenomenally successful in not winning any……but, I am nothing if not an optimist.

The Economy

And it is my optimism that brings me to the first subject that I want to raise - the economy. What, you may well say, has he got to be optimistic about when we think of the state of the UK's economy over the past few months. All the pundits and, apparently, even our darling Chancellor of the Exchequer think recession is on its way, if indeed it is not already here. The forecasts are of zero or negative growth and rising unemployment, inflation is gathering pace, signified by massive increases in fuel prices and foodstuffs, and newspapers are full of the one thing all homeowners know and fear, the "credit crunch" and falling house prices, along with the prospects of negative equity and repossessions. Moreover, we know the Government has reached the limit of its taxing and borrowing powers - public sector spending now exceeds the "target" 40% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and public sector debt, at a colossal £555 billion, is at an all time high, so it can't spend, spend, spend to get out of trouble. Wow, having written down all these points I am going to have to take a cold shower.

That's better! Now it would be quite easy for me, and indeed, you might expect me, to blame the Blair/Brown governments for this mess. I will not disappoint you - but the blame attaches not so much for their acts of commission rather than those of omission. In fact oil and gas price rises and the so-called sub-prime lending collapse are outwith the jurisdiction of the UK. Where the Labour administration is to be criticised is for not having the wit to see the problems looming - and that, after all, is what we pay these chaps to do - and creating a reserve through fair taxation and ensuring effective regulation of, eg, the banking industry. Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer could certainly have acted to prevent situations like the Northern Rock debacle, It did not happen suddenly and Vince Cable, the LibDem Treasury spokesman, has for many years been railing against the unsustainable growth of personal debt. Brown as Chancellor of the Exchequer should certainly have ensured that the burden of taxes fell on the wealthier rather then the poorer members of society - the multi-millionaire equity fund manager who is supposed to pay 40% of his income above the higher rate threshold probably pays little or no tax whilst a new graduate repaying a student loan in effect pays tax at a marginal rate of 63%

Yet I am optimistic. Interest rates are low, employment still remains relatively high, the population as whole is better educated and young people are prepared more than ever to travel the world to find work and experience, we are becoming increasingly aware of the need to protect our environment and we have started on the long road to counteract climate change. Big regeneration projects are in progress around the country (more on the Olympics in a paragraph or two) which will serve to stimulate the economy and help the house market recover.

LibDems have also proposed a raft of measures that will restore confidence in the housing market - such as local authority and housing associations taking up part equity in homes to help those in most need - and there is evidence that these ideas are being taken up by the current Chancellor of the Exchequer (although credit for them is not acknowledged - but then you wouldn't expect it to be!). I should point out that the LibDems did not suggest that the Chancellor hint that he was thinking about the removal of stamp duties and by doing so cause total paralysis of buyers as they awaited the outcome of his very slow thought processes. Nor did we suggest that it was good idea to terrify the country by telling us that we were going to have the worst recession for 60 years - for heavens sake, in 1948 most homes did not have an inside loo let alone the gadgetry we take for granted today so I rather think comparisons of this sort are for political effect rather his stated desire to "be straight with electorate".

And natural instincts will also help the house market recover and, perhaps of greater importance, stabilise. The generation that has benefited most from rising house prices (and don't forget about 70% of residential property is in private ownership) has come to realise that this unearned profit has been at the expense of their children's generation. We are seeing many parents finding ways to pass some of this on to their children to help them on to the housing ladder, so increasingly they are funding the higher level of deposits now demanded by banks and building societies, even if this means borrowing against the equity in their own houses.

At the present time, to do this without incurring gift tax, parents would have to be registered as part owners of the purchased property (and would incur capital gains tax on their proportion of the equity if the property is sold on at a profit before their deaths). It would be nice if the government exempted from any taxation transfers between parents and children for these purposes. And whilst they are at it ……they could reduce the standard tax rate to 16%, abolish council tax and introduce local income tax and do a lot more to ensure that the 40% rate is actually paid by those in the upper income brackets (Lib Dem policy!).

That would be fair! What it should on no account do - but I suspect that the temptation is too great for this Prime Minister and his Chancellor - is to impose a windfall tax on the energy companies. Yes, these companies have earned a total of some £9 billion unexpectedly as oil and gas prices rose and a large proportion of this would boost the public coffers and solve a little problem here and there, but they have made the gains within the framework of the law as it now stands. By all means change the law to trap future gains, if it is in fact possible to imagine all the circumstances in which they will arise, but to grab back these legitimate profits (as they did in the case of the privatised utilities in 1997 - then with the implied threat of future price controls) is retrospective legislation. Nothing has the potential to undermine democracy as much as retrospective legislation - once the principle is admitted the floodgates would open up to any area of activity, not just tax, an incoming government took against.

The 2012 Olympics

Team UK's tremendous performance in the Beijing Games has been the bright light in an otherwise gloomy summer. But another reason to be optimistic about the economy, at least in this part of East London, is that the Olympics is coming and, as the time approaches, it cannot fail to have beneficial effect on employment prospects, the general environment and, yes, even, house prices. Now I am one who was, indeed, still, is, not in favour of a London Olympics. Not because I am miserable old curmudgeon (although I may be that too) but because I object to the corrupt circus that is the IOC tearing up yet another working city whose infrastructure was not designed to accommodate the influx of hundreds of thousands of visitors in a two week period and imposing on it facilities that are completely useless after the Games - what on earth was to become of a baseball pitch in Central Athens, to quote but one example. In fact an opportunity was lost when Greece won the nomination for 2004 to establish a permanent home for the Olympics, say in Olympia, and to stop the nonsense once and for all. As for London I don't buy the regeneration/legacy argument - if we needed to regenerate East London, and we do, we should have done do so anyway and found the money - it would have taken far less than the £9 billion allocated - so far, wait until the costs of security register - to catalyse the process. But now we have got it let's ensure that Hackney, Leyton, Waltham Forest and all areas north east to Redbridge get a jolly good clean up and plenty of new business and work opportunities.

I attended a few weeks ago a meeting at which the great and the good (what was I doing there?) of the business world debated what they thought should be the legacy of the Olympic site. Practically all agreed that it would be necessary to build something else in the Park that would have an immediately recognisable international identity - a Canary Wharf or an Eiffel Tower or similar. I was a lone voice in the wilderness when I suggested that the "green legacy" of a beautiful park with the aquacentre, stadium and housing that is already being installed there at great cost might be more appreciated by future (even present) generations than yet another office district or worse, a theme park. A few more community swimming pools (see my story of June 2008) and continental style cycleways into central London would be a better spend of any remaining cash than more unsightly monuments to capitalism.

Knife and Other Youth Crime

One surreal and not too serious possibility I heard mooted (the mooter probably having the benefit of a beer or two prior to the mooting) was that we should build on the Olympic site a new Coliseum, where we can stage gladiatorial contests in the Roman tradition between all the knife wielding, gun toting, binge drinking, gangsters, thugs, rogues, villains and tax dodgers……….. (whoa there …..). They will, he said, soon calm down when faced with the prospect of a hungry lion or an opposition gang member armed with a trident and net, so that our mean streets will be once more returned to the law abiding citizen and overcrowded prisons will be a thing of the past. On the other hand the kids might enjoy the fight and the public, heaven help us, might enjoy the spectacle……..….and it's not really fair to the lions for they have done nothing to deserve having to eat the unfortunate products of our rather dysfunctional society. OK - let's stick with the pools and cycle paths!

But it did turn my mind as to what to do about the increasing lawlessness in the streets of London and I came back to an idea that I proposed back in 1997. It is far from original and not LibDem policy as far as I know, although I am sure it has support in some quarters. I would like to see the establishment of a Community and Environmental Army, organised as was National Service. - or at least the technical and financial feasibility of such scheme investigated - LibDem policy favours a voluntary scheme. All youngsters between the ages of 16 and 25 not in full time education would have to serve two years either working on community projects or environmental improvement schemes - in deprived communities in the UK or in the developing world, which would both open their eyes to the problems of others and teach them useful life and vocational skills. Those in full time education would have to serve a year on completion of their studies. Discipline would have to be as strict as for military service and those not co-operating should expect to be punished. The reason that such a scheme has never got off the ground is that it would probably take a considerable sum of money to organise - but, apart from the benefit arising from the work done, there would be considerable cost savings if it brought about a reduction in crime and a more responsible attitude to society generally. Yes, there would be risks - some kids would get injured, others become ill, particularly if they did not obey instructions - but there are risks to them and society as whole if we allow youngsters to roam aimlessly.

Zimbabwe

Talk of knife wielding, gun toting gangsters, thugs and rogues brings to mind Zimbabwe and the disgraceful contemptible regime of Mugabwe and his henchmen. They have in the space of a few years destroyed what one was one of the world's true paradises and ruined the lives of its hardworking honest people. Brits, and for that matter the rest of the western world's governments, have stood on the sidelines wringing their hands, powerless to intervene and frustrated by the sycophantic Thabo Mbeki's one sided mediation. One can only hope that the power sharing arrangements that are now being brokered succeed in restoring some semblance of order to that fractured country.

Amongst other things LibDems have very reasonably proposed a block on sterling remittances to Zimbabwe from Zimbabwean resident workers in UK - not because we want to see the families of these people suffer more than they do at present but because the regime steals the hard currency and very little gets through to the person intended. But I have my own, perhaps draconian and a little off centre solution, to the tyranny of Zimbabwe and that of other kleptocracies. I say isolate………… Switzerland. Yes, that's right, I said Switzerland. Whilst Switzerland (and a few other countries, but mainly Switzerland) continues to provide numbered bank accounts for the world's nastiest despots and their acolytes, they will continue to rob, embezzle and siphon off the wealth of their countrymen. If the facilities were not there, one of the reasons for their oppression would be removed.

It upsets me that the Swiss as a nation grow fat on the proceeds of this trade and I think the EU, at least, should cut off all business relations with the country until such time as its electorate brings pressure to bear to outlaw this form of banking.

OK, you agree with me, but, you ask, is it practical? We won't know until we try. It worked with Liechtenstein - but Liechtenstein is not Switzerland. Another objection raised by those who have been harangued by me on this subject is - it'll never get any support, too many European politicians have numbered bank accounts. I don't know if that is true, but if it is, then there is even more of a reason to boycott the Swiss.

UK MPs Expenses

On the matter of transparency of accounting, in July, most of the parliamentary Labour party plus 21 Conservative MPs and UKIP's only MP united to vote down the LibDem proposal for the independent audit of all MPs' expenses claims. Sadly Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory leader and our local MP, was absent from this vote.

It's alright. I am not about to reveal that IDS has been fiddling his expenses and has stashed away a pile of readies in a numbered bank account. As a matter of fact I would not dream of suggesting that any UK MP would even contemplate such a thing. However, since it seems that rarely a week goes by without a story in the press about MPs or MEPs, shall we say, exaggerating their claims, this was a missed opportunity for politicians to show that they can be trusted with public money. Whilst they resist having their expenses and allowances subject to proper audit, it is only natural that people assume that they have got something to hide. In fact, hoping that they will be setting an example, LibDems are committed to introducing unilaterally the proposals rejected by Parliament, including independent spot checks of the expenses of the party's MPs.

IDS and the Lost Plot

Mention of IDS reminds me that it has been reported that he recently joined left wing Walthamstow MP and greyhound owner, Neil Gerrard, and dog racing enthusiasts in a march to Walthamstow Town Hall to protest at the closure of the Stow, the 75 year old greyhound racing track that was about to be sold off by its owners for redevelopment. Whilst I can fully understand why staff and regulars would be disappointed, I am at a total loss to fathom out what prompted IDS's support for the SOS (Save Our Stow) campaign.

Actually I am not really at a total loss. He is either cynically aligning himself with every protest group in the constituency in order to garner their votes at the next election or has lost the plot completely. During the past year whenever there has been threat of a closure of a facility, whether car parks, allotments, post office or now the dog racing track, IDS seems to want to take on the role of a white knight fighting for rights of the downtrodden. Whereas there may well be good grounds for opposing action initiated by a local authority or a state controlled business, social value is not one I would associate with the Tories and trust them to uphold. But, what is IDS's principle for opposing the closure of a totally private enterprise which is no longer commercially viable and for whose land assets there is an alternative use? Does he or does he not believe in a free market economy?

Of course I have sympathy for all those affected by the closure but I know perfectly well, as must IDS, that the Stow cannot and should not be saved. Market forces are against it and even if he or a government had the power to intervene he would not do so because that would be to go against the Tory grain. In my view he is misrepresenting his position but if I am wrong and he genuinely thinks he can or should reverse the deal, then he is as delusional as Don Quixote!

…….and finally

Well I have enjoyed my little rant. Here's hoping next month's events will give me good material on which to sound off. Between you and me, I am confident that they will and I hope you will join me. At least you won't have to wade through my life story again!.

GMS August 2008