GREECE has, effectively, lapsed into administration – were it a PLC it would be bankrupt, while a football club in the same position would be relegated.

Just like a person or a company, if a country persistently spends more than it earns then, sooner or later, it must face the consequences.

The most obvious conclusion from this is that Labour’s, and more specifically Gordon Brown’s, profligacy is totally unsustainable.

Mr Brown’s insistence on allowing national spending to grossly exceed income, even in the economic good times bequeathed by the last Conservative government, has left us in a financial position uncomfortably close to that of Greece.

The traditional Labour approach of tax, tax, borrow, borrow and tax again, to allow them to spend, spend, spend is a recipe for fiscal disaster.

Anyone with an over-stretched credit card will say that the problem very quickly becomes one not of repaying the debt, but of meeting the interest charges. This is where that ‘economic genius’ Brown has got us.

There is another lesson to be learned here. Greece is in the Euro, and this unavoidably places a substantial burden on its currency partners. They, in return for economic aid, seek control over Greek policy decisions.

The simple fact is that monetary union without political union is nonsensical. The Lib Dems want both, despite the inevitable loss of both our economic and national independence.

Make no mistake. Another Labour government would lead to economic disaster, whilst a Lab-Lib pact would lead to the UK being incorporated into the United States of Europe.

Political and economic disaster would follow, and would bring international relegation with them. Who really wants that? Not I.

Bill Armer

Deputy Chair Huddersfield Conservative Association, Conservative Candidate for Ashbrow.

LDF record

IT’S NOT often that I write to your newspaper over issues but this time I have been so angered over the misinformation that has been quoted over the LDF plans for Kirklees that I must put the record straight.

The consultations about the Local Development Framework were started by Kirklees Council in October 2005 with a Statement of Community Involvement being adopted in the following September.

The next step was to produce a Development Plan Document 1 – Core Strategy in October 2005 with consultation running until December of the same year. The Preferred Options Consultation and Sustainability Appraisal went from June until July 2006 with a scoping report being published in April 2008.

Supplementary Planning Document 1 – Negotiating Financial Contributions for Transport Improvements (Leeds Road, Huddersfield) was published in October 2005 until December of that year with consultation taking part in January until March 2006 with its Adoption in September 2007.

Supplementary Planning Document 2 – The provision for Affordable Housing in new Housing Developments was published in October/November 2007 with consultation being held in April/May 2008 and its adoption taking place in November that year.

Kirklees website now shows that the timetable for LDF is currently under review.

May I now remind residents who led the Council in those periods: 30/06/04 Clr Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem); 18/05/05 Clr Kath Pinnock (Lib Dem); 24/05/06 Clr Robert Light (Conservative); 23/05/07 Clr Robert Light (Conservative); 21/05/08 Clr Robert Light (Conservative); 22/01/09 Clr Mehboob Khan (Labour); 30/07/09 Clr Mehboob Khan (Labour).

I attended various public meetings and raised my concerns in the consultation periods along with residents who were up in arms about the amount of housing that had been put in the initial documentation for new housing in the Bradley/Fixby areas. Bill Armer was not at any of these meetings.

It was my involvement that persuaded the Labour Group to ask Officers to have another look at the distribution of the houses that are to be built in Kirklees up to 2024.

Residents must ask themselves which party has actually listened to the community and acted upon their concerns.

Jean Calvert

The Labour Party Candidate for Ashbrow Ward

Another taxing term?

AM I the only one who can sense the bad smell of a decomposing rodent?

Look at the utterances and body-language of Gloomy Gordon and it is plain to me that any delusional person voting for the Liberal Democrats, solely on the basis of a glib TV performance of the former MEP Nick Clegg, is simply allowing Labour to retain power for another taxing term.

Here’s the scenario; Gordon “I agree with Nick” Brown will quickly be dumped by Labour in their search for consensus with the Lib Dems.

The boy Milliband – see how he’s hanging in there at each opportunity – will be put forward as Brown’s replacement, Clegg will become a functionary junior minister and the not-so-saintly Vince Cable will simply get a job in The Treasury.

We’ve seen how the Lib Dems performed in Kirklees, do we really need them in central government?

GB

Shepley