JohnBM:Liberal

While I have nothing per se against the introduction of a ‘lad’s army’ national voluntary scheme, I do have serious doubts as to its implimentation in the real world.

In areas like the Upper Calder Valley where I live there is already a long history of community voluntary work which improves the communities without the need of any centralised quango imposing targets and quotas.

There is a serious danger that introduction of a ‘national’ voluntary service could see many small groups being pushed aside by regional managers who think they know best and ignoring the needs of communities.

The direction of resources must be determined at community level otherwise such a scheme will end up as just a Tory election gimmick which I suspect it is anyway.

Only missed the beginning of the Ask the Chancellors debate last night but it was truely a night for Vince Cable.

He knocked Mssrs. Darling and Osborne out of the water on the deficit, the banks and taxation.

This isn’t just my opinion, the interweb is full of commentators declaring King Vince as the winner. Take for instance this of Channel4’s Factcheck:

Cathy Newman’s verdict
Vince Cable reinforced his reputation – telling the truth for example on the income gap being worse than when the Tories left office.

Alistair Darling, on the other hand, boobed on the death tax. And George Osborne remains confusing on child tax credits.

And here’s the lesson for all three political parties as the campaign gets underway: the public likes honesty.

Our online voters made Cable the winner. And FactCheck’s provisional analysis is that he has been rewarded for speaking truer than his two opponents

Unfortunately I’m at a meeting this evening and will only be able to watch “chancellors” debate on-line later.

What I can’t wait to see is George Osborne’s probably futile attempts to justify making a national insurance cut after weeks and months of calling for action to be taken on the £70bn deficit.

I trust Vince ‘the brain’ Cable will demonstrate the intellectual and arithmetic failings of the wannabe Tory chancellor.

After a panicky couple of weeks it looks like the Tories are returning to their core vote after failing to make any headway on the middleground.

Chancellor Alistair Darling refused to appear on the Today programme this morning to discuss the budget.

After hearing the appalling  duck and weave by the Tory shadow chancellor, George Osborne I don’t think he should have turned up either.

Compare and contrast with Vince ‘The Brain’ Cable.