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.

Merrick + Headline = Scare

The Northern Echo's front page headline and story today about reductions in local police budgets is journalism at its most sensational. Despite "Durham Police Authority promising that its front-line service will be protected" the eye-grabbing headline reads "Budget cuts will hit police numbers", which is quite clearly not what the article below says.

North Yorkshire Police say there will be no effect on front-line staff. Durahm Police say there will be no effect on front-line staff. Cleveland Police say there "could" be an effect though they will "try not to affect the service to the public".

Yet we have a scare-mongering headline clearly designed to suggest that the numbers of police on the beat where you live will be cut. And the Leader inside repeats fears about a decline in community policing.

Nowhere in the article does it mention the deficit and the desperate need for the new Government to take action to reduce this - to avoid our country following Greece into economic and financial meltdown. Nowhere in the article does it say that the actions being taken by the Coalition have been necessary because of the grotesque way in which the Labour Government ramped up the deficit in order to buy votes.

The result in Thirsk and Malton, showing a sizeable swing from Labour to both the Coalition parties, shows that the electorate are not stupid. They realise the Labour Government got us into this mess and the Coalition has to take firm action to get us out of it. By allowing Rob Merrick free reign to write scare stories about Coalition policies is out of tune with public opinion and is, frankly, poor journalism.

OK to wear England Football shirts

Following a typically baseless story in The Sun a couple of weeks ago that a local authority in London was advising pubs to ban football supporters wearing England shirts during the World Cup, reports have been coming in to councillors in Darlington of people on the street being threatened with a £30 fine for wearing an England shirt in public, and of a pub being told by the local police that they were banned from displaying an England flag.

Durham Constabulary have this morning issued a statement which says that football shirts will not be banned and nor will England flags. Well, that's cleared that one up then. We now have official permission to wear whatever shirt we like, though personally I'd like to know whether this extends to wearing a Reading shirt on High Row.

Blink and you'll miss them

Two small sentences caught my eye in the new Coalition Programme for Government which will be of interest in Darlington.

In amongst all the grand plans we see this:

"We will allow councils to return to the committee system, should they wish to."

and this:

"We will impose tougher rules to stop unfair competition by local authority newspapers."

There is no doubt many local councillors, particularly among the Conservative ranks, view the Leader-Cabinet-Scrutiny model as far too centralised and undemocratic and many of them pine for the days when a vote in Committee or in Council actually meant something.

Could be an interesting debate if power changes hands next May. Would the local Tories actually propose the tearing down of the Cabinet system if they get their hands on a bit of its power?

Personally, I don't have a big problem with the Leader-Cabinet model. What does annoy me is the lack of information and lack of consultation which comes from some departments within the Council. Ward councillors from all parties complain about officers not keeping them informed about things which are happening in their ward and not consulting them about proposals for their ward.

It's all very well promoting ward councillors as "local champions" but in some Council departments in Darlington there is a culture of "officers know best" or "it'll make our lives a lot easier if we don't tell the ward councillors about this." This is particularly galling when many of these officers do not and never will choose to live here. For them, Darlington is just the next step on their rise up the local government ladder. They think they know best because their professional rule book tells them what to do.

It doesn't always work like that on the ground, as they sometimes find to their cost. Involving ward councillors throughout would help avoid the time consuming, costly and undemocratic mistakes which are sometimes made.

I haven't seen any comment from Peter Barron, the editor of the Northern Echo, about the second quote. He has been engaged in a long-running campaign against the unfair, as he sees it, competition for advertising revenue presented by the Council's colourful monthly Town Crier (or Town Liar) magazine.

What these "tougher rules" will be is not spelt out, but I would expect there to be widespread support for this measure from everywhere outside the ruling Labour Group.

Update: Peter Barron either reads this blog or he's got enough time on his hands to read the coalition's programme - or both. About an hour after I published this, he has blogged about it. Read Peter's on-line blog here.

Annual Council and Mayor Making

Last night was Darlington's Mayor Making ceremony in the Town Hall. Definitely one of the high points of the year with abundant good will and civic pride.

The outgoing Mayor, liberal-minded Conservative Jim Ruck, has been a popular and successful mayor, carrying out his civic duties, as was said by his sponsor, with a beam on his face.

The incoming mayor is chosen strictly by seniority defined by the number of years spent on the Council (and, amongst those elected in the same year, by lots drawn at the first Council Meeting after their election). For the coming year, the Mayor will be Councillor Bryan Thistlethwaite.

Bryan is a Labour Councillor who has represented Cockerton East (a Conservative target ward, so it's lucky for him that he crept in this year!) for 19 years. I don't know Bryan at all, but apparently he was a skilled engineer with BT. The delight and pride on his face and those of his family members was plain to see. He took the Chair with confidence, as might be expected of someone raised in the trade union movement.

I'm sure he will enjoy his year. In case you were wondering, following the North Road by-election, I have risen from 53rd and last to 52nd in terms of seniority. I don't expect the chains of office will ever hang around my shoulders!

One interesting by-product of yesterday's ceremony: at the reception afterwards, senior Labour Councillors took it in turns to bend the ear of one of my ex-Labour Lib Dem colleagues, telling him he'd always be welcome back in the Labour Party, now that we are in coalition with the Conservatives. They got nowhere, of course.

Regional offices to be downgraded

Next week I expect the Government to announce a major reorganisation of One North East, Government Office North East and the Homes and Communities Agency. I understand that significant numbers of staff employed by these organisations are to lose their jobs, perhaps following the merger of their responsibilities.

£57m BSF money frozen

One of the themes of my General Election campaign here in Darlington - a campaign, by the way, which produced an increase in our vote from 7,000 to 10,000 (23.4%), against the general trend elsewhere - was that voting Conservative and getting a Conservative Government would lead to the withdrawal of our promised £57m Building Schools for the Future money for the rebuilding or renovation of Longfield, Hurworth and Branksome schools.

Although many cherished Lib Dem policies have made it into the Coalition's platform, on education it seems to me that the Conservatives, with their plans for "free schools", hostility to the BSF programme and continued support for University tuition fees, have taken the lead. The Guardian reported yesterday that the Building Schools for the Future programme has been frozen pending review.

I could not support this policy if, indeed, the Coalition Government decided to withdraw this funding. We would effectively have a two-tier school system in the town, at least in terms of bricks and mortar. We know that the education provided by these schools is good and that buildings do not a school make, but with parents across the town seeing some pupils learning in bright new well-equipped classrooms with the most up-to-date equipment, while others struggle on in a range of outdated and temporary accommodation, it will certainly seem to parents that some pupils have a built-in advantage.

No doubt our new MP is making our case. I have written to both Sarah Teather and David Laws urging them to use their best endeavours to ensure that projects already in the pipeline are allowed to complete their course.