The Government's answer to any problem to make things more efficient appears to be to centralise control. This control mania started with hospitals, is spreading to schools with central funding there and now to the police service with plans to merge police forces like Hampshire and Thames Valley.
Tony Blair announced last week that there would be a three month public consultation about increasing the amount of UK power generated by nuclear fuel. The government have accepted that they have no chance of meeting their emissions targets in 2010. In fact carbon emissions in the UK are currently increasing. Tony Blair is keen to see further investment in nuclear energy, the so-called "clean" alternative.
In October 2005 Scarborough and Whitby Liberal Democrats circulated a questionnaire to all GP practices, Dentists, Opticians and Pharmacists in the constituency, asking their opinions of the proposed re-organisation of the PCTs. 38% were returned and the message that came back was very clear:
ID cards would be of "limited value" against terror and would not have prevented the London attacks in July, says the reviewer of anti-terror laws. Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile said he had changed his mind on identity cards, which he had previously backed.
"Essex residents face a proposed council tax rise of 4.6% - around twice the rate of both general inflation and the increase pensioners will receive in April this year" says Cllr Tom Smith-Hughes, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Essex County Council.
Cyril Townsend, who served as Conservative MP for Bexleyheath from 1974 to 1997, has announced that he has joined the Liberal Democrats.
