Michael Burnett: It's time to take UKIP seriously - and attack their core idea that Britain should leave the EU

Michael Burnett was a candidate for the European Parliament in the West Midlands in 2009.

When David Cameron came to Burton-on-Trent a few days before polling day in the 2009 European elections, he asked me, as a candidate, what I thought he should do over the remaining part of the campaign.

I used my “elevator moment” to suggest that he should attack and keep attacking UKIP, who had come from fourth place in April 2009 polls to be, as they had in 2004, our most serious opponent. In doing so I reflected what a number of others in the candidate and wider campaign team felt i.e. that - rightly or wrongly - the Party had failed to take the UKIP threat sufficiently seriously. 

While not all Liberal Democrat votes will drift to Labour and not all UKIP voters are former Conservatives, UKIP - splitting the right of centre vote - are nevertheless the main threat to Project Blueprint for a Conservative majority. So with UKIP presenting as third in a number of recent polls – in one case on 16% - we can’t afford to repeat that mistake in the 2014 European elections or the 2015 General Election.

Michael Burnett: Three options for Cameron at the EU summit

Michael Burnett was a candidate for the European Parliament in the West Midlands in 2009

David Cameron faces a difficult week in Brussels with several interlocking issues:

• The need for the Eurozone to create the structures for economic and monetary union to function effectively and the implications of this for the Single Market.
• The future of the proposed banking union Discussions on the margins about the resolution of the EU Budget for 2014-2020;
• And, possibly, the financial transactions tax.

These issues are not only complex in themselves, but also have obvious overlaps - i.e: the banking union is a key component of economic and monetary union; the financial transactions tax is regarded as a possible source of “own resources” for the EU budget, thus making it less dependent on contributions from Member States, and the closer integration of the Eurozone may lead to block voting on Single Market issues, which could mean that non-Eurozone members could be institutionally outvoted.


Even if they were not, the significance of the issues at stake means that there will probably be a “grand bargain” - the usual modus operandi of EU compromises. The issues at stake should not be underestimated. Make no mistake, what is proposed for the Eurozone - creating a state within a state - will fundamentally change the character of the EU more than anything since the UK’s accession in 1973.

Michael Burnett: I have seen the Big Society at work...but it just happens to be in Germany and the Netherlands

Michael Burnett was a candidate for the European Parliament in the West Midlands in 2009

Is it really possible to engage citizens in caring about their communities? Or have we gone too far down the route to believing that “It’s the state’s job to create healthy communities”? In what circumstances can the ideas of civic engagement which underlie the Big Society be most fruitfully applied?

Two recent visits to continental Europe to different countries and different types of community have given me greater clarity about how and where the Big Society might flourish. Firstly, I visited Borne, a small municipality of around 21,500 inhabitants in the eastern Netherlands, which is relatively socially and ethnically homogeneous.

The municipality of Borne has had a history of citizen consultation on its future developments, but wanted to deepen this approach by creating a widely shared vision for the future of the community through engagement of civil society and citizens in the decision making process for the future of the community and as a starting point for joint action. What was it that impressed me about Borne’s initiative, apart from the obvious enthusiasm of the people who I met?

• The willingness of local politicians and municipal officials to take the risk of offering choice to citizens within a clearly articulated framework.  Bourne's politicians were taking the risk that, if citizens make direct choices, their roles may become less relevant.

• The genuine nature of the choice of different strategic visions offered by the municipality, rather than consultation on a single strategy. This was done via a civic referendum, in which the opportunity to vote was also extended to anyone aged 15 or over, and in which on-line voting was permitted, thus engaging the next generation of voters in a process which will impact on their lives

• The unity of purpose amongst all stakeholders (municipal officials, more than 20 partner organisations and politicians from different parties) to use this process to shape the future of Borne The clear understanding of the need to translate the vision of “Mijn Borne 2030” into an implementation plan in order to meet the expectations of citizens created by this project and there are processes for doing so.

• The understanding of the need to start this process of implementation by reflecting it in the budgetary decisions of the municipality for 2012 and in the internal organisation of the municipality.

Michael Burnett: Ensuring a Scottish independence referendum is defeated will mean English politicians staying out of the fray

Michael Burnett was a candidate for the European Parliament in the West Midlands in 2009.

The SNP’s victory in last month’s Scottish Parliament election was a political earthquake whose aftershocks will persist.

Most of the attention so far has been on its implications for the United Kingdom: will it lead to Scottish independence and is a vote for the SNP equivalent to a vote for independence? Should England, Wales and Northern Ireland have a voice in any decision, perhaps by means of a parallel consultative referendum? Others have commented on whether or not Scotland could be economically viable, the implications for Scottish public finances and what would have been the implications of the banking crisis for an independent Scotland.

I'm sure, however, that the decision will not be purely economic. Czech colleagues have spoken in recent years about the peaceful separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the 1990s, which showed that even two relatively poor countries could separate amicably. Their answer was in essence that Slovakia wanted to go and relations are happier on both sides now that they have. They couldn't really identify any loss to them in financial, economic or cultural terms. But Czechs who were married to Slovaks faced dilemmas about where to live after the separation - the languages are very close but would the job opportunities be equal?

And there are some things in life whose value is not appreciated until you don't have them. Will a Union of 300 years prove to mean more than one which lasted 75 years, much of which was spent under Nazi and then communist oppression?

Michael Burnett: How Labour mismanaged Public Private Partnerships - and how we should reform them

Michael Burnett was a candidate for the European Parliament in the West Midlands in 2009.

PPP was the Labour government’s name for the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) introduced by the Major government. Concessions such as toll roads have been around for many years but the massive expansion of PPP since 1997 has been driven by a different type of PPP, so-called “public service PPP”, i.e. where the payment for the service comes not from end users but direct from public budgets.

Can public service PPP make sense? In concept, they do. They are based on the sound idea that government buys services through an integrated contract for both asset construction and operations which is bid for by a competitive process and paid for by a series of fixed equal instalments over the life of the service contract. The equal instalments cover the capital costs and operating costs so in effect the cost of construction is spread over the life of the service contract. It can be thought of as a form of leasing. The private partner is usually paid nothing until the service is being provided ie nothing during the construction phase. The advantages of this approach - the “no service, no payment principle” - are that:

• Because the private partner is paid nothing during the construction phase it has proved to be a strong driver to on-time construction;
• Because the private partner is remunerated for a fixed sum over the life of the service contract it acts as an incentive to “fit for purpose” construction: i.e. it helps to avoid on the one hand over-engineering in design and construction and on the other hand poor quality design and construction which could lead in both cases to expensive operating costs.