Cornwall granted minority status within the UK

Later today the, Liberal Democrat, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, will confirm that the proud history, unique culture, and distinctive language of Cornwall will be fully recognised under European rules for the protection of national minorities. 

The decision to recognise the unique identity of the Cornish, now affords them the same status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities as the UK’s other Celtic people, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish. For the first time the government has recognised the distinctive culture and history of the Cornish.

Speaking on a visit to Bodmin, Cornwall, Danny Alexander is expected to say: "Cornish people have a proud history and a distinct identity. I am delighted that we have been able to officially recognise this and afford the Cornish people the same status as other minorities in the UK."

Today’s announcement builds on the government’s continued commitment to Cornwall and the Cornish language. The Cornish language has already been recognised under European rules for minority languages. In March this year, the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced that the Government would be investing a further £120,000 into the Cornish Language Partnership (MAGA) to promote and develop the language.

Welcoming the news the Liberal Democrat Communities Minister Stephen Williams commented: "This is a great day for the people of Cornwall who have long campaigned for the distinctiveness and identity of the Cornish people to be recognised officially. The Cornish and Welsh are the oldest peoples on this island and as a proud Welshman I look forward to seeing Saint Piran's Flag flying with extra Celtic pride on March 5 next year.”

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall has welcomed the Government’s announcement. Speaking on behalf of Mebyon Kernow, Party Leader Cllr Dick Cole said: “This is a fantastic announcement for Cornwall. I am absolutely delighted that the Government has recognised the Cornish people as a National Minority and it is great to see that all the Celtic peoples of these Islands – the Cornish, Irish, Scottish and Welsh – are now afforded equal protection under the Framework Convention." 

Concluding Councillor Cole said: "People have been campaigning on this issue for over fifteen years and I would like to pay a heartfelt tribute to everyone who played a part in the long running fight to secure National Minority status."

Labour 'shameless' and 'hypocritical' on VAT

After three years attacking the Coalition for raising VAT, from 17.5% to 20% in George Osborne's first budget as Chancellor, Labour's Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rachel Reeves last night admitted on Newsnight that if the Labour party win the 2015 general election they would not reverse Coalition Government's decision. 

Lib Dems have put this out on social media

This is contrary to their five point plan for jobs and growth where point three is "Reversing the Tory-led Government's damaging VAT rise" which Labour described as needed because: "now for a temporary period - a £450 boost for a couple with children - immediate help for our high streets and for struggling families and pensioners." Does this mean Labour's "five point plan for jobs and growth has been ditched?

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, Stephen Williams said: "Labour have spent the last three years aggressively attacking the Coalition for raising VAT." 

Continuing Mr Williams said: Now they admit they won't reduce it. This is rank hypocrisy from a party that has no answers to the big questions of the day - how to fix the economy, create jobs and help people with the cost of living." Liberal Democrats have taken tough decisions in the national interest in order to clean up Labour's mess, and Labour has called us every name under the sun for doing so. They have been utterly shameless and deeply hypocritical."

Lib Dem poster from the 2010 election campaign

However Labour sources are pointing out that during the 2010 general election campaign the Liberal Democrats warned of a "Tory VAT bombshell" then after the election voted for it. One Labour source told me: "The Lib Dems aren't in a position to be accusing anyone of hypocrisy, when you warn of a VAT bombshell the usual thing to do is defuse the bomb not voting with the Tories so the bomb can go off"

Parties clash over the latest growth figures as the economy grows by 0.6%

Britain's economy grew between April and June on the back of stronger spending by consumers and businesses and giving a boost to the government less than two years before an election. Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.6 percent in the second quarter compared with the previous three months, in line with forecasts, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has showed. That was double the pace of growth in the first three months of 2013 but the economy still remains smaller than before the 2008-09 recession, suggesting to some economists that it still needs nurturing by the Bank of England.

The numbers are a boost for the Chancellor George Osborne, who has fended off calls from the International Monetary Fund and the Labour party to spend more now to speed up growth. "Britain is holding its nerve, we are sticking to our plan, and the British economy is on the mend - but there is still a long way to go and I know things are still tough for families," George Osborne said in a statement. "So I will not let up in my determination to make sure we put right all that went wrong in our economy." Growing signs of a pick-up in the British economy have coincided with a narrowing of Labour's lead over the Tories in the opinion polls.

Commenting on today’s GDP figures, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, Stephen Williams said: "Fixing the economy was always going to take time, but these figures are further evidence that the Coalition’s plan is working. After wrecking the economy, Labour spent the last years rubbishing the Coalition’s growth plan. They were wrong. Slowly but surely the plan is working and the economy is recovering. It is particularly encouraging to see the construction sector growing so strongly, providing a much needed boost to house-building, and to see manufacturing on the rise. The Liberal Democrats are building a stronger economy and a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. Getting growth going and creating jobs is at the heart of that. We have helped businesses create a million jobs, now we want to help create a million more."

Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, responding to GDP figures for the second quarter said: "After three wasted and damaging years of flatlining, this economic growth is both welcome and long overdue. But families on middle and low incomes are still not seeing any recovery in their living standards. While millionaires have been given a huge tax cut, for everyone else life is getting harder with prices still rising much faster than wages. This is also the slowest recovery for over 100 years. In America, where President Obama has acted to support rather than strangle the recovery, their economy has grown nearly three times faster than the UK since autumn 2010. Simply to catch up all the ground we have lost under David Cameron and George Osborne we would need growth of 1.3 per cent each quarter over the next two years."

Mr Balls continued: "Real risks remain. So instead of more complacency from the Chancellor, we need action to catch up all the lost ground and secure a strong and sustained recovery that everybody can benefit from. Labour would help families on middle and low incomes with a 10p starting rate of tax, paid for by a mansion tax. We would introduce a compulsory jobs guarantee for young people, paid for by a bank bonus tax, to help get the benefits bill down. And we would bring forward infrastructure investment now. If the £10 billion boost recommended by the IMF was invested in housing we could build 400,000 affordable homes and support 600,000 jobs. This is a One Nation economic plan which would ensure we have a strong and sustained recovery which is made by the many, not just a few at the top."

Coalition parties round on Miliband's "empty speech"

The Tories say that Ed Miliband has again denied that when in government Labour spent too much and borrowed too much. Instead of admitting their spending splurge almost bankrupt the country, Miliband offered up an empty welfare policy. They also pointed out that despite the words the Labour party in parliament have voted against three benefit caps worth £14 billion, and have opposed £83 billion of welfare savings. Now they want to ‘cap’ welfare spending. But Liam Byrne has been asked fifteen times  today to explain any detail at all about their so-called ‘cap’ and he has refused to answer the questions.

The Tories say that Ed Miliband and Liam Byrne cannot say:

• What the cap would cover
• What benefits they would cut
• What would happen if they hit the cap
• Whether they would stick to the £83 billion of welfare savings we have put through that they oppose.

Sajid Javid, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, commented: “It is unbelievable that Ed Miliband still won’t admit Labour borrowed too much and spent too much. He is too weak even to apologise for the mess his Government made. Instead, we get empty rhetoric. They have repeatedly voted against capping benefits. Now they claim they want a ‘cap’ but can’t say what it would cover, what level it would be set at, what benefits they would cut – nothing that would make it credible. This is just the same old Labour: empty rhetoric smattered with more spending, more borrowing and more debt. Hardworking people would pay the price of the welfare party”.

Commenting on Ed Miliband's speech, Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Treasury Committee, Stephen Williams said: "There was nothing in this speech to demonstrate Labour have a plan on the economy. Labour left a record deficit, youth unemployment that had increased by 40% on their watch and a broken economy that had been focused on financial gamblers in the City of London for too long. Liberal Democrats are working in the Coalition Government to repair the damage done by Labour and build a stronger economy in a fairer society, enabling everyone to get on in life. We are creating jobs across the country through the Regional Growth Fund and Vince Cable is overseeing a record rise in apprenticeships, helping 1.2m people gain the skills and experience necessary for a successful career. We have made the tax system fairer than it has ever been for the low-paid, with people on national minimum wage seeing their tax bill cut in half and 20m working people are paying £600 a year less than they were under Labour. Empty speeches dressed up as economic plans will not convince the British people to trust Labour again."

However, Len McCluskey, the general secretary of the Unite union came to Mr Miliband's defence saying: "Ed Miliband's speech offers hope that there is an alternative to George Osborne's punishing experiment with the national economy. Disgracefully, millions of people do not earn a wage that can keep them and their families, yet they work the longest hours in Europe. They are thoroughly fed up with the lack of decent, secure work in this country and detest the waste of talent that sees one million young people wasting their talents on the dole. They want a government that will roll up its sleeves and do something about this. So the jobs guarantee, action on demeaning, insecure work and a drive to embed the living wage are a good start. Labour now needs to firm these up, working with unions, as well as employers, because with our connection to millions of working people we can bring these promises to life, and address some of the real drains on people's incomes such as childcare and travel costs. 

Continuing Mr McCluskey said: "Ed Miliband is also right to recognise that decade upon decade of housing neglect has saddled this country with a chronic homelessness problem and a warped social security bill. Only by building enough affordable houses can we bring to an end this scandal. Contrast that with the Tory offer of state-subsidised mortgages for second homeowners and people will understand who is on their side. This is now about offering a distinctive choice in 2015 about the sort of nation we can be. If Ed Miliband continues in this vein, then he will win working people back to Labour."

UK out of recession as economy grows by 1.0%

The UK stormed out of its longest double-dip recession since the 1950s after its economy returned to growth in the third quarter with a robust gain of 1.0 percent, official data showed on Thursday. Gross domestic product (GDP), or combined value of produced goods and services, grew at the strongest rate for five years during the July-September period after contracting in the previous three quarters. Market expectations had been for the economy of the UK, to have expanded by 0.6 percent in the third quarter compared with the second after falling into a double-dip recession in late 2011.

Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the data but warned against complacency amid global economic headwinds."There is still much to do, but these GDP figures show we are on the right track, and our economy is healing," Cameron said in a statement. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne echoed the cautious sentiment, saying that "yesterday's weak data from the eurozone were a reminder that we still face many economic challenges at home and abroad." Britain escaped from a deep downturn in late 2009 but fell back into recession at the end of 2011.

The economy contracted by 0.4 percent in the second quarter of this year after shrinking by 0.3 percent in the first -- and by 0.4 percent in the final quarter of 2011. "GDP was estimated to have increased by 1.0 percent in Q3 2012 compared with Q2 2012," the Office for National Statistics said in a statement. The largest contribution to the increase came from the services sector. There was also an increase in activity in the production sector. Activity in the construction sector fell. Growth was also affected by one-off factors, including the London 2012 Olympic Games and rebounding activity after an extra public holiday for Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee, the ONS said. 

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls responded to the news: “It's good news that, with the help of the Olympics, Britain is finally out of the longest double-dip recession since the Second World War. Our economy desperately needs an injection of confidence. But this is no time for complacency and wishful thinking. Today's figures show that underlying growth remains weak and that our economy is only just back to the same size as a year ago - twelve months of damaging flatlining which has seen borrowing rise in the first half of this year. And with living standards falling, more tax rises on the way, small business lending down and the eurozone still in crisis, it would be very unwise of David Cameron and George Osborne to just sit back, cross their fingers and hope for the best. The complacent thing to do now is simply to wait and hope things will get better. The cautious thing to do is to act now to secure and strengthen growth in our economy". 

Co-Chair of the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson, Stephen Williams said: “Today’s positive GDP figures are another encouraging sign. Together with falling unemployment and inflation, these are signs that the economy is healing.“The UK suffered a huge economic shock during the financial crisis. Liberal Democrats were clear when we joined the Coalition Government that it would be a choppy road to recovery but that we needed to create the right conditions to support growth and deal with the deficit. “Today’s news is positive but we are working hard to build a sustained and sustainable economic recovery. Only last week, Nick Clegg announced another £1bn worth of investment through the Regional Growth Fund, helping to create jobs across the country. 

“Liberal Democrats know that what matters to people is not abstract numbers but the money they have in their pocket. That is why we have done the right thing to support people on low and middle incomes in these difficult times by lifting more than a million people out of paying Income Tax all together and giving nearly 25m people a £550 Income Tax cut since 2010.”