I can support this.

Yesterday’s budget was necessary, tough but fair. I didn’t join the SDP/Alliance/Lib Dems to cut the benefits of people who need them, or to increase regressive taxation. I didn’t get into politics to impose a pay freeze on public sector workers.

But sadly we have no choice: the financial mess Labour got us into has to be cleaned up. If Labour were in government, they’d have had to make similarly tough choices - though would they have had the nerve? They already had £23bn of cuts lined up for the coming year, so perhaps fewer crocodile tears from some of our local Labour politicians are in order.

The Budget takes necessarily difficult decisions in an honest and fair way, with Liberal Democrat values clearly ameliorating the worst excesses of Conservative dogma.

Key Lib Dem policies I campaigned for are well to the fore in this budget.

The £1,000 increase in the Income Tax allowance will mean that 880,000 low paid workers will be freed from Income Tax altogether. This is the first step towards delivering our manifesto commitment to ensure no-one pays tax on the first £10,000 they earn - Labour wouldn't have given you this.

The Budget introduces our promise of a new tax on banks, ensuring that they help to pay to clear up the mess they created.

Top earners will pay a full 10% more in Capital Gains Tax, with no loopholes or tapers or get-out clauses. This helps ensure those with the broadest shoulders take the greatest strain. It’s not as much as we’d have liked, but it’s more than the Tories wanted.

The budget guarantees a fair deal for pensioners, putting into effect the Liberal Democrat manifesto commitment to a “triple lock”, so that state pensions rise every year in line with earnings, inflation, or by 2.5%, whichever is the highest. Never again will pensioners be allowed to fall behind - Labour had thirteen years and didn't give you this.

The Budget establishes a regional growth fund and regional national insurance support to help create new businesses and jobs right here in the north east.

Tackling child poverty is central to the government’s approach. So while we have decided to cut child tax credits for those who can most afford it, we have increased tax credits for the poorest families and put up to £2b extra into child tax credits to help ensure children from the poorest backgrounds get a fair start in life - Labour had thirteen years and failed to eradicate child poverty.

These measures will ensure that the burden of deficit reduction is shared fairly by everyone.

This Government is being honest with people about the road ahead. Of course there are things in the budget I don't like. There are things in there that Lib Dems campaigned against, like the VAT rise. But that’s because this is a coalition based on compromise which sees the party most people voted for mix policies with the Lib Dems. It’s how coalitions work.

The alternatives are worse. Labour would not have reformed the tax system nor tackled the culture of overspending in government.

I don't like cuts and extra taxes, who does? I don't like the VAT increase, not least because it will harm my business, competing with off-shore internet-based supplement companies.

But without the VAT increase, public services would have been truly decimated, or our spiralling and unsustainable debt interest payments would have continued.

The Coalition has been open and fair. We now all know where we stand. We have a realistic and credible plan to get Britain’s economy back on track.

A couple of tough years, with more tough choices to come, is something we will just have to grit our teeth and get on with. Rather this than the economic and financial meltdown Labour's policies were pushing us towards.

Appropriate use of Council money?

Yesterday, two glossy magazines landed on my doormat, possibly delivered together. One was the Council's Town Crier magazine, the other was an independent advertising glossy called "darlington TODAY" (sic). I don't remember seeing this magazine before, though this is issue 21. Maybe that's because I live in Central ward and the target market appears to be people who might send their kids to private school.

What do I find in "darlington TODAY", in amongst the articles and adverts for private schools, private health clubs, interior designers and hotels: seven and a half pages of adverts for Labour-controlled Darlington Borough Council!

All the usual stuff about what a great job Street Scene is doing and about what fun it is to cycle in Darlington nowadays (as a cyclist and a Council Tax payer, I hadn't noticed either of these assertions to be true).

Is this what our Labour Council thinks is an appropriate use of tax payers' money? Seven and a half pages of adverts in a glossy magazine aimed at the affluent parts of the town?

We have our Labour MP and Council Leader both appearing elsewhere in the media over the past few days wringing their hands about the impact on local government of the Coalition's plans to cut the deficit, and yet they go and waste our money advertising in magazines like this! Since when did local councils decide that an appropriate use of Council Tax payers' money was to fund expensive PR and advertising campaigns telling me how wonderful they are?

Strong line up for Cockerton West announced

The contest to replace Jenny Chapman MP as councillor for Cockerton West ward on Darlington Borough Council will be a four-way fight with the BNP putting up against the three main parties.

The Lib Dem candidate will be Cockerton West resident Brian Jefferson, former teacher at Branksome School, in the ward, and currently Chair of GOLD (Growing Older Living in Darlington). Brian is the only candidate who lives in the ward.

The Labour Candidate will be Jan Cossins, Chair of Cockerton East Community Partnership and shortlisted last year for one of the town's community service awards. The Conservatives will be represented by David Davies, former UKIP candidate and husband of Conservative Councillor Kate Davies. The BNP candidate is Paul Thompson (not the guy with the flooring business!).

A strong line up for only the second by-election since the 2007 local elections.

By-election called

Following the election of Cllr Jenny Chapman to be the new Labour MP for Darlington, a by-election has been called to fill the vacancy caused by her resignation as councillor for Cockerton West ward. The by-election will be held on July 8th.

This is only the second by-election to be held during the current four year term of this Council, which is now in its final year. It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the existence of a Coalition Government will have on voter perceptions of both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems.

The Liberal Democrats have already held a competitive selection to choose our candidate. Four local members applied to represent the Party, among them Cockerton West resident, former Conservative Councillor and Chair of Growing Old Living in Darlington, Brian Jefferson. The selection sub-committee has made its recommendation to the Executive Committee and an announcement about who is our candidate will be made shortly.