Major surgery need on banks – Nick Clegg tells Elisabeth Wilson

Lib Dem candidate for Halifax, Elisabeth Wilson, took the opportunity to ask Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader, about the future of banking at a “town hall meeting” in Bradford.  Pointing out that “the Halifax” had gone from a building society to a bank, to a bigger bank, and now part of the huge LloydsTSB group, she expressed her concern for the effects on local employment as well as financial stability.

Nick Clegg said banks needed major surgery.  There should be a tightly regulated sector for high street banks where the public could trust their savings – and if things went wrong they would be bailed out.

This sector should be completely separate from the risk taking activities that had caused the banking crisis, which he said was the fault of greedy banker. This had led to the current recession. In his view there should be a 10% levy on the profits of banks until the loan from the taxpayers was paid off.

Nick Clegg compared Lib Dem proposals to the weak efforts of the current Labour government, merely having a one-off tax on bonuses, which many banks were planning to get round.

Later in the evening Elisabeth Wilson was able to have more discussions about the concerns local people have for employment in the Halifax area with Nick Clegg.

Nick Clegg was visiting Bradford for a town hall meeting at the Karmand community centre, where members of the public could put any questions to him.

The picture shows Elisabeth Wilson, Lib Dem candidate for Halifax with Nick Clegg MP, Lib Dem leader

Experienced campaigner Dr Elisabeth Wilson has been chosen by Halifax Liberal Democrats to fight the 2010 general election.  She is well known in the area, as a former County Councillor, member of the Calderdale health authority, town councillor and mayor of Todmorden, and school governor.  Elisabeth has experience of fighting two previous general elections.  In 2005 she held the vote at 25% in Colne Valley constituency in a tough three-way fight.

Elisabeth Wilson holds MBA and PhD degrees and is currently self-employed as a lecturer and consultant.  She has worked for both Manchester University and Bradford University School of Management, and from January to March 2009 she was a visiting professor at the University of Ahfad, Omdurman, Sudan, a women’s university. She has undertaken short assignments overseas for the Department for International Development and UNESCO.

Elisabeth Wilson is a Quaker (member of the Society of Friends).  She lives in Slaithwaite, very near Halifax.  She has two adult children and one granddaughter. Her hobbies include theatre, yoga, walking, and decorating celebration cakes – you can find out more about her on Facebook.

Halifax Liberal Democrats will soon be meeting in order to set out a timetable for the selection process of a new Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for the Halifax constituency.

Until a General Election is called, no party can have a candidate for election, but parties normally chose to select a potential candidate in advance who will then act as the party’s parliamentary spokesman and campaign on parliamentary issues within the constituency.

Halifax Lib Dems regret the decision of previous PPC Diane Park to resign from the role and withdraw from party politics, and hope that the new PPC will be able to build on the work she carried out.

Cllr Jennifer Pearson is dismayed at the decision of the Conservative Cabinet to close Pellon library. She reports that, “Liberal Democrats tried to get the Cabinet to reconsider this decision. We got the support of Labour Councillors but the Conservatives would not listen, even though they were outvoted in full Council.”. “When Pellon Library closes, Warley will be the only ward in Calderdale without its own library. I was disappointed that I was the only one of the three Warley Councillors to argue for a better library service for Pellon. Unfortunately, we are likely to end up with nothing more than a couple of extra stops from the mobile library and that’s just not good enough, said Jennifer.”