Message from David Cameron

Dear Richard,

Parliament has risen, summer is here and this coalition government is nearly at the three month mark. It's a good time to take stock of what we've done so far and where we're going. Eleven weeks in and I believe we've made a good start.

We said we'd take the tough decisions needed to rescue our economy and we've been doing that. We've scrapped Labour's jobs tax, completed an in-year spending review to save £6 billion of waste and presented an emergency Budget that will balance the books within five years.

We promised radical reform of our public services and we're delivering, with a big expansion of the academy programme in our schools and unprecedented reform of the NHS - £1 billion of bureaucracy cut, pointless targets scrapped, whole tiers of bureaucracy abolished and real power for GPs and patients.

We campaigned relentlessly on pushing power out from the centre and we're making it happen. Eric Pickles' department has been busy dismantling the architecture of top-down control, scrapping Regional Assemblies, Regional Strategies and the bureaucracy of RDAs.

We said we'd do the right thing by our troops and we've been doing that too. We have established a National Security Council, made sure we have a clear strategy on Afghanistan and doubled the Operational Allowance for our Forces.

This isn't an exhaustive list, but it does show our intent to hit the ground running as a great reforming government. And just as we've started, so we'll go on - taking the tough decisions on our economy, radically re-thinking our public services, pushing power out to people and doing all we can to restore Britain's standing in the world.

But however frenetic the coming months and years will be, however busy life in government is, I will never forget how we got here - through your hard work and your tireless campaigning.

Thank you for your continuing support - and have a great summer.

David Cameron

More than a Holding Page

Concerned readers have contacted me about the local Tory Association’s website being down and the promise that, “This website is under reconstruction and will be functional again soon."

I hope it will be too.

However, thank you for reading this blog and don’t forget in the meantime that the Cambridge Association’s Coleridge branch has both a website and a very active blog.

Rubber Plant in 'White Elephant' Transport Row

Cambridge's MP has declared the Guided Bus to be a 'White Elephant' and once again attacked plans to upgrade the notorious A14 motorway.

In any other part of the UK, the Lib Dems would be whining for more public transport. Here, they complain that it is the wrong kind of public transport.

I agree with Councillor Roy Pegram (who supported the Lib Dem/Labour nonsense of a Cambridge Congestion charge) that in this case, “The busway will help reduce the number of cars needing to drive into the city centre, which is exactly what Mr Huppert wants.”

For those with long memories, the reason that many councillors voted for the Guided Bus was because the Labour government said that unless they did so there would be no upgrading of the A14.

Cuba Needs Democracy, Not Lib Dem "solidarity"

The local Lib Dems have shown their support for the communist-front Cuba Solidarity group. Like the 'useful idiots' of Lennism they miss the basic point about the US sanctions - Cuba is a dictatorship. If the Cubans could have a free vote for political parties of their choice then the blockade would be lifted. "Simples."

My former organisation, the International Democrat Union, welcomed the latest international pressure on the Cuban regime...

Earlier this month the Castro regime, after mediation by the Catholic Church, announced that it would release 52 political prisoners and “allow them” to leave the island. This is a remarkable u-turn by the regime, since Cuba so far denied having any political prisoners at all.

The release and exile of political prisoners didn’t happen because the Castro regime decided to soften its stance. In particular since the untimely death in February of hunger striking political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo, recognized by Amnesty International as a prisoner of conscience, Cuba has come under intense and unprecedented international scrutiny. A recent hunger strike by Guillermo Farinas – for the more humane treatment and immediate release of the most ill political prisoners – increased the pressure on the regime after he was hospitalized in critical condition.

It is of course a positive that a number of political prisoners, jailed under extreme and inhumane conditions, are no longer incarcerated. However, it seems that they were in reality only given the choice between remaining in prison or leaving Cuba. Officially the regime says that the exiled prisoners are free to return, but since the jail sentences are not lifted this not a real choice.

Farnborough 2010

A fun day was had too.

Can the Cabinet System

The governance of local government may seem an arcane subject, but the news that the central government will allow local authorities to scrap the cabinet system and reintroduce the committee-based one is good news. Local councillors get a greater say under the committee system and it forces the council leadership to argue through policies from an early stage rather than foisting them from the centre (often at the bidding of their officers).

I hope the county and city councillors will have the gumption to go back to a system of accountability.

Time for a 'Tea Party' Over Residents’ Parking?

Oh, what a surprise. When a public body introduces a charge and tells you that there are ‘no plans’ to increase it or it is designed to be ‘revenue neutral’ – Run!

The taxes to be levied on the American colonies in the 1760’s were minimal but the inhabitants of British North America knew that if they allowed Whitehall to introduce them at all then it would be the thin edge of a financially heavy wedge. The Americans had a 'tea party' in Boston as part of the protest. Maybe some residents here should check their tea caddies for future use?