Well it looks like it just might happen. Gordon Brown has kept us on our toes for weeks and now he may be hoist with his own petard. He needs to call an election this coming week - or call it all off and live with the roller coaster of a recession which seems to be fast approaching. And this time Gordon cannot blame anyone else.
And if he goes to the country he will find that 11 point lead very fragile. Britain has dropped from fourth to tenth in the international competitiveness league tables under Labour. The British Chambers of Commerce now estimate that the cost of new regulations on business under Labour has topped £56 billion. There have been more than 14 new regulations every working day under Labour and the average British company has to spend £14,270 a year implementing new legislation. Under Labour, lending has been rising at a rate of over 10 per cent per Annam, making the debt mountain now greater than Britain's total GDP. And during his ten years as Chancellor, Gordon Brown introduced 111 stealth tax rises, including the abolition of tax credits on pension funds' dividends and increases in stamp duty - can we really forgive and forget that?
This is a man of promises but not principles. There have been nine major reorganisations of the NHS in nine years, estimated to have cost a total of £3 billion - but we now have a health service in total disarray with more administrators than nurses. And now he wants us to believe he will put the NHS first on his priority list for reform! According to a report by UNICEF, the UK is rated the lowest out of 21 OECD countries for child well-being. 1.25 million young people aged 16-24 are not in work or full-time education - almost 20 per cent more than in 1997. And the UK has a higher proportion of its children living in workless households than any other EU country and the highest proportion of lone parents in Europe. Almost half of 11-year olds cannot read, write and add up properly. According to the latest international comparisons by the OECD, the UK has fallen from 8th to 19th for maths results and from 4th to 12th for reading results. Over one third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school-leaving qualification. This is not a family friendly man.
Post offices have been closing at a rate of nearly ten per week under Labour. 4,875 sub-post offices have closed since 1997 and the Government has announced plans to close a further 2,500. 52 per cent of households in rural areas do not have access to a regular bus service. Violent crime has doubled and gun crime has increased by 80 percent and a quarter of all offenders are under 21. There are over half a million illegal immigrants. Under Labour immigration has tripled. Since 2004 over 700,000 arrived from EU Accession States. Can we really be surprised that we have a broken society. Society is not safe in Mr Brown's hands.
Only a Conservative Government will strengthen society, empower individuals and bring back meaning to the words-the family, economic stability and peace. Watch this space, watch David Cameron.....you will be surprised.
Sunday 30 September 2007
Sunday 9 September 2007
Family, Responsibility and Opportunity
If there were ever any doubt, I think it is now clear that the Brown "bubble" has burst. The papers today are full of the news of our financial woes - something for which Gordon can blame no-one else. If you have a mortgage, as I do, the financial burden is getting more and more painful. Even though there seems to be a move to reduce our forces in Iraq and an outside chance that Gordon may consider a referendum on the EU, that is unlikely to be enough to give Mr Brown the certainty I think he needs to go to the country.
And I am pleased to see David Cameron stick to his guns - he is a Conservative and always has been. I quote from the Telegraph yesterday: "So let me spell it out. I am a Conservative because of the values that I have believed in all my life:family, responsibility and opportunity. I am a Conservative because I believe that those values lead inexorably to a political agenda whose central mission is to give people more power and control over their lives... because we want people to rely on their family, not the state; because you can't take responsibility for something unless you have control over it; and because true opportunity means having the freedom to achieve all you can in life."
Compassionate Conservatism doesn't mean abandoning a belief that lower taxation increases economic growth, or a belief that Europe should be about free trade not political union, or a determination to fight crime and give power back to citizens and take it away from criminals. But unless we address the fundamental causes of the breakdown in our society we won't be able to deliver. We need a health service run to deliver quality health care - not to meet artificial targets; we need an education system that gives our children real choice and a real prospect of employment, led by teachers, not children; we need families to feel supported not undermined by the state and a raft of legislation - without them we have no society.
In Newton Abbot and across Teignbridge we face daily attack on our public services, be it our paramedics and nurses or our fire fighters. Gordon Brown seems quite uninterested in the personal consequences to individuals of his cuts and has no interest in listening to the case put by local people who know first hand what the consequences will be. Post offices are set to suffer the same fate. Gordon does not know how to listen - and in time he will pay the price. In Newton Abbot, I will listen, I will do my homework and check the facts, and I will fight for those who look to me for help if that will deliver a better future for all of us living in Newton Abbot and its surrounding villages.
I have received much correspondence about the bypass - keep it coming! The more I know the better able I will be to champion the cause. And for the avoidance of doubt that cause is the reduction of traffic congestion and provision of much needed housing - BUT in the right place, at the right time, at the right price and after full and frank disclosure and consultation. Lets get it right...and not say after the event, why did we let Asda happen? "Anonymous" whoever he or she may be, asked me if I had evidence of the planned development which is a large part of the justification for the current bypass proposal. I would refer "anonymous" to an article in the Herald Express on page 22 dated April 26th 2006 and to the Kingskerswell Bypass Economic Impact Study of 2002.
Another week in politics!
And I am pleased to see David Cameron stick to his guns - he is a Conservative and always has been. I quote from the Telegraph yesterday: "So let me spell it out. I am a Conservative because of the values that I have believed in all my life:family, responsibility and opportunity. I am a Conservative because I believe that those values lead inexorably to a political agenda whose central mission is to give people more power and control over their lives... because we want people to rely on their family, not the state; because you can't take responsibility for something unless you have control over it; and because true opportunity means having the freedom to achieve all you can in life."
Compassionate Conservatism doesn't mean abandoning a belief that lower taxation increases economic growth, or a belief that Europe should be about free trade not political union, or a determination to fight crime and give power back to citizens and take it away from criminals. But unless we address the fundamental causes of the breakdown in our society we won't be able to deliver. We need a health service run to deliver quality health care - not to meet artificial targets; we need an education system that gives our children real choice and a real prospect of employment, led by teachers, not children; we need families to feel supported not undermined by the state and a raft of legislation - without them we have no society.
In Newton Abbot and across Teignbridge we face daily attack on our public services, be it our paramedics and nurses or our fire fighters. Gordon Brown seems quite uninterested in the personal consequences to individuals of his cuts and has no interest in listening to the case put by local people who know first hand what the consequences will be. Post offices are set to suffer the same fate. Gordon does not know how to listen - and in time he will pay the price. In Newton Abbot, I will listen, I will do my homework and check the facts, and I will fight for those who look to me for help if that will deliver a better future for all of us living in Newton Abbot and its surrounding villages.
I have received much correspondence about the bypass - keep it coming! The more I know the better able I will be to champion the cause. And for the avoidance of doubt that cause is the reduction of traffic congestion and provision of much needed housing - BUT in the right place, at the right time, at the right price and after full and frank disclosure and consultation. Lets get it right...and not say after the event, why did we let Asda happen? "Anonymous" whoever he or she may be, asked me if I had evidence of the planned development which is a large part of the justification for the current bypass proposal. I would refer "anonymous" to an article in the Herald Express on page 22 dated April 26th 2006 and to the Kingskerswell Bypass Economic Impact Study of 2002.
Another week in politics!
Sunday 2 September 2007
Law and disorder?
Prison officers on strike, nurses walking out of a mental health hospital - are we in for a winter of discontent? Those working in public services feel unloved and unappreciated. Given how much money has been pumped into public services this is surprising. Too much money has been spent on target setting and the administration required to measure compliance - what we need is money redirected to front line services. Nurses, prison officers and many other professionals do a fantastic job for very little recognition or reward. That has to change.
Perhaps even more disturbing is how ineffective our community police officers have been as reported in the press this week. The number of crimes solved is tiny - but let us bear in mind that they are not to blame. Their training is minimal and their powers are severely limited. This is a labour government attempt to meet the public outcry for "bobbies on the beat" - with a cheap "sticking plaster" solution. And what of our full time, fully trained police force? They remain frustrated by so much desk work filing in forms and a drive to get crime solved numbers up by solving the easy "paper" crimes rather than the crimes which are more damaging for society. Can we please focus on crimes which damage people and communities rather than those which are little more than a technical infringement?
Canvassing in Starcross and Bishopsteignton this week was very enlightening - lots of support for me and the Conservatives in areas which to date have been seen as solidly Liberal Democrat. I am increasingly hearing it said that the Liberal Democrats and Richard Younger-Ross are simply not delivering on promises made and that community life is getting worse not better - rubbish collection, parking provision, traffic speed, planning are all cited as not working.
The bypass continues to be a key issue -and we need to ensure any decision takes account of all affected communities - not just Kingskerswell and Torquay. Newton Abbot residents in whose community the Penn Inn roundabout sits, need to be asked for their views along with many others. I was intrigued by Richard Younger-Ross's position on the bypass as he expressed it in the Herald Express-he is only in favour of the bypass if there is no development. Given the proposal for the bypass contains significant plans for housing development, does this mean he is in fact against the bypass?
While predictions in the national press suggest an election announcement this week, labour are at pains to deny this. What is really happening in the labour camp - and how ready for an election are they really? It could be an interesting week!
Perhaps even more disturbing is how ineffective our community police officers have been as reported in the press this week. The number of crimes solved is tiny - but let us bear in mind that they are not to blame. Their training is minimal and their powers are severely limited. This is a labour government attempt to meet the public outcry for "bobbies on the beat" - with a cheap "sticking plaster" solution. And what of our full time, fully trained police force? They remain frustrated by so much desk work filing in forms and a drive to get crime solved numbers up by solving the easy "paper" crimes rather than the crimes which are more damaging for society. Can we please focus on crimes which damage people and communities rather than those which are little more than a technical infringement?
Canvassing in Starcross and Bishopsteignton this week was very enlightening - lots of support for me and the Conservatives in areas which to date have been seen as solidly Liberal Democrat. I am increasingly hearing it said that the Liberal Democrats and Richard Younger-Ross are simply not delivering on promises made and that community life is getting worse not better - rubbish collection, parking provision, traffic speed, planning are all cited as not working.
The bypass continues to be a key issue -and we need to ensure any decision takes account of all affected communities - not just Kingskerswell and Torquay. Newton Abbot residents in whose community the Penn Inn roundabout sits, need to be asked for their views along with many others. I was intrigued by Richard Younger-Ross's position on the bypass as he expressed it in the Herald Express-he is only in favour of the bypass if there is no development. Given the proposal for the bypass contains significant plans for housing development, does this mean he is in fact against the bypass?
While predictions in the national press suggest an election announcement this week, labour are at pains to deny this. What is really happening in the labour camp - and how ready for an election are they really? It could be an interesting week!
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