Edward Davey MP has today been appointed Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
Arriving at DECC's headquarters in London, Mr Davey said:

"This is a sad day because Chris Huhne has had a real vision for a green economy and he's done fabulous work as Secretary of State.

"I've now got to take up the challenges – the challenge of climate change, the challenge of energy security.

"And I'm particularly conscious of the impact on households across the country of high energy bills.

"I'm determined to work to follow on Chris's priorities, the Coalition's priorities and to make them my priorities.

"I want us to have a green economy, with the green jobs and investment we need to help grow our economy."

I was appalled to hear that Labour have been lying to us about what they would do to tackle the economic mess the Coalition Government inherited from Blair and Brown.

The almost comic duo of Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have let the mask slip and made clear that they have no Plan B on the economy.

For the last year and a half, local Labour activists have been pushing leaflets through your letterboxes which have now been exposed as lies. They have made clear they are not going to reverse any of the cuts the Coalition Government has been forced to make to restore economic stability.

This is the worst kind of politics: creating confusion by campaigning against policies which they have no intention of doing anything about in Government. They have gone from being in the wrong place, to all over the place.

It is time the local Labour party came clean themselves, apologise for the economic mess they left behind by letting the banks run wild and losing control of the nation's finances. They need to explain what they would do in Government."

Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron said:

"This admission by the Eds leaves the Liberal Democrats as the only political party with the backbone to tackle the country's problems, but with the heart to do everything to ensure that fairness, compassion and justice are written through everything we do.

"In the Coalition Government, Liberal Democrats are the party delivering tax cuts for working people, we are the party investing in the poorest school pupils, we are the party delivering the largest ever state pension rise and most importantly, we are the party prepared to take the tough decisions needed to get this country back on track.

"Don't hold your breath waiting for an apology from Labour - but rest assured Liberal Democrats will continue to do the right thing on your behalf."

ENDS

Notes to Readers:

1. On BBC Radio 4's The World at One, Ed Balls said: "As shadow chancellor, I can say to you unequivocally we can make no commitment to reverse any of the Government's tax rises or spending cuts."

2. In an interview with the Guardian on 13 January, Ed Balls said: "My starting point is, I am afraid, we are going to have keep all these cuts. There is a big squeeze happening on budgets across the piece. (...) We are going to have to start from that being the baseline. At this stage, we can make no commitments to reverse any of that, on spending or on tax. So I am being absolutely clear about that."

Ed Balls continued: "It is now inevitable that public sector pay restraint will have to continue through this parliament. Labour cannot duck that reality and won't. There is no way we should be arguing for higher pay when the choice is between higher pay and bringing unemployment down."

3. Interviewed on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show Ed Miliband supported Ed Balls: "If I were to come on your programme and say well take the cuts, some of the cuts that are being made, I can promise you now that I would restore them, you'd say, 'Well where's the money going to come from? You don't know the circumstances you're going to inherit.' Ed was making an important point."

He went on to say that "This is responsible, this is absolutely responsible opposition."

It is likely that a number of our cities will, by Government diktat, be holding referendums in May as to whether to move to a mayoral system. Some of these will give the go-ahead and Liverpool is anyway likely to jump straight to a mayoral system by use of a council resolution. The mayoral contests will be on the same day as those for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

There are still some who, in relation to PCCs, are fondly imagining that Liberal Democrat candidates won't be needed. This is despite the fact that it abundantly clear that the Conservative and Labour parties will be contesting these elections and despite the go ahead from the Federal Executive, overturning the English Party's efforts to prohibit Lib Dem candidates.

The announcement of key mayoral contests makes abstentionism even more bizarre, but no doubt there will be some jungle fighters out there still in denial about whether a political party should contest political elections.

By Christmas massive budgets for policing and city services will, like it or not, be in the hands of single individuals, only loosely scrutinised by councillors. There is a danger that the Party may have made itself irrelevant not only failing to field candidates in some parts of the country but by having policies which are now dangerously out of date.

We know that we are opposed to elected mayors and PCCs. We should perhaps remain so. But we need to ask ourselves why we are opposed and what this means for the growing numbers of directly elected politicians.

Key questions now need to be asked:

• how do we ensure that power is not concentrated to such a degree that corruption becomes possible?
• how do we have democratically justifiable mechanisms for removing powers from those who misuse it or just fail?
• how do we make sure that minority parties get a reasonable voice?
• In what ways should we press for the strengthening of the astonishingly limited powers of Policing Panels to challenge the decisions of a PCC?
• Should we insist that a Mayor's Cabinet should be cross-party?

Meanwhile, what about the shires? The Government has done good work in preparing the devolution of important powers to cities and city regions.

But why should a county council, which might have a population of well over a million, not have similar powers? If that is the case is not time that we pressed for the first county mayors (or should we call them 'sheriffs?').

And in two tier areas how are district councils going to fit in? Do we still believe unitary authorities are preferable to the two-tier system when the most recent creations have seemed huge and remote? Does the city region model offer an alternative?

This may not seem to come up much on the doorstep. But it is a live agenda on which we need to provide new thinking.

* Chris White is Liberal Democrat Group leader at Hertfordshire County Council and Deputy Leader (Policy) of the Liberal Democrat Group at the Local Government Association

Deputy Prime Minister gave a wide-ranging interview to The House magazine, in which he discusses how it's right for the two coalition parties to differentiate themselves once a stable government was formed:

In the run-up to the general election, you may remember, the tabloids were screaming, saying that if there was a hung Parliament locusts would descend from the sky and the sun would be blotted out, you know... so we needed for those first few months to show the most important thing of all, which is this is a government that works, and actually works rather well.

Of course, after that phase you then get [that] we're different parties, we do have different instincts, we do have different values. I just think we are quite relaxed in government that we have our differences - sometimes they are played out in private, sometimes they are played out in public.

Nick goes on to discuss what he sees as significant achievements for the party in government, and, in a telling line, describes the difficulty Lib Dem peers face in supporting legislation they wouldn't under different circumstances:

Let's be blunt: I am asking, day in, day out, Liberal Democrat peers to vote on things that they wouldn't do in a month of Sundays if it was a Liberal Democrat government.

The interview covers such ground as reform of the upper house, Nick's stance on the Middle East and changes to the tax system.

You can read the whole interview here.

There is no suggestion that Mr Dick should be cured of his unusual ideas; indeed, they are never directly challenged by anyone. At first the young David finds them hard to accept, but as Mr Dick proves his worth and, most importantly, finds his place within his community, they become increasingly irrelevant. 

Indeed, it is even suggested that he is able to bring about a reconciliation between Dr and Mrs Strong that someone with a more conventional mind would find impossible. As Mr Dick puts it himself: "a poor simple fellow with a craze, sir … may do what wonderful people may not do." 

By the end of the novel Mr Dick has recovered, not in the sense that his 'symptoms' have changed, but that they no longer define him. Miss Trotwood tells David that by using the strategy of copying documents Mr Dick can keep King Charles at a respectful distance and live his life free and happy. He is one of the novel's heroes and an exemplar of recovery for the modern age.

1. Three convictions for any unexpended crime automatically means prison.


2. Three custodial convictions--suspended or otherwise--means life imprisonment. By which I mean that you will be eligible for parole after 25 years, but released on licence for the rest of your life: another conviction puts you straight back in the cells.