![Gordon Brown [© Crown Copyright 2005]](/fileadmin/_processed_/0/c/csm_gordon-brown-crown-copyright-2005_c39513e1fc.png)
Gordon Brown has today admitted to MPs that the economic forecasts he made just nine months ago were hopelessly optimistic. Mr Brown, who has built his reputation on the prudent stewardship of the economy, is likely to say the economy will grow at 1.75% this year, its slowest pace in more than a decade and only half of what he forecast in the March budget.
Essex County Council Liberal Democrats leader Tom Smith-Hughes has warned that the council could be faced with the difficult choice of a significant rise in council tax and being capped, or cutting crucial services such as social care, children's services, waste management and transport.
Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrats are supporting the Climate Change Action Day with a stall in Scarborough Town Centre on Saturday 3 December. The Climate Change Action Day has been called to lobby world leaders who are meeting in Montreal to consider next steps following the expiry of the Kyoto Agreement on CO2 emissions.
Questions asked by the Lib Dems to Tory run Shepway Council have revealed that the new recycling scheme has broken its budget by more than £500,000. The majority of the losses are due to the withdrawal of the collection vehicles and reduced income from the recycling being collected together rather than separated at kerbside.
Commenting on the Prime Minister's attempts to broker a budget deal at the EU conference in Hungary, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable MP said "The bottom line is that any deal must involve reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as the Government have promised."
Sharon Bowles MEP was the guest speaker at Epsom & Ewell Lib Dems AGM, held recently at the Phoenix Club in Epsom. Sharon succeeded Chris Huhne MP when he stood down as an MEP on being elected to the Westminster parliament. She arrived directly from Strasbourg, where the European Parliament's rotating sessions had been held that week, and regaled members with her accounts of the reality of life in the European goldfish bowl.
