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Archive Page 3 of 91
Today a colleague forwarded me an e-mail update about the work of the Association of Nuclear Free Local Authorities, a pointless tokenistic anachronism based in a bunker in Manchester Town Hall and funded (mostly unwittingly, I suspect) by Council taxpayers across the country.
Shortly afterwards, I received an e-mail from the Prime Minister David Cameron asking me for ideas on how to save public money.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking…?
I’m really pleased that the Government has decided to retain funding for Salford’s Building Schools for the Future programme, and that the school building programme can now proceed. This is good news for children across the City, although it would have been even better news had our Labour Council not managed the BSF process quite so incompetently.
Obviously some difficult choices have been made with the BSF programme nationally, as a result of the catastrophic financial legacy of the previous Labour Government, but this decision – along with the potential review of Labour’s maternity unit closure – shows that we are all in this together and that the coalition government is giving Salford a fair hearing.
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Any support for this blog would be much appreciated!
(Via Iain Dale)
I don’t suppose that this website has many readers in Coventry, but on the off-chance that there are, my friend’s grandfather has gone missing and I’d be very grateful if you could keep and eye out and please inform the police if you have any information as to his whereabouts.
Update: he was found safe and well by the Police Helicopter which must be a huge relief for everyone involved.
So, they’ve stumbled through after being under pressure for their poor performance, and they’ve been accused of letting the nation down. They still seem have no coherent ideas going forward and that troublesome left flank is remains a problem…
…but enough of the Labour leadership race, did anyone else watch the football?
There’s a vote on the Walkden High School website about the name of the school when it is rebuilt. I’m pleased to see that “Walkden High School” is winning. It would appear that anyone can vote, so go right ahead!
Some very difficult decisions were taken today; decisions which I know George Osborne will have taken no pleasure in making, and decisions which I know under different circumstances would not have been made.
We have to accept the gravity of the situation, which is that the previous Labour Government planned this financial year to spend one hundred and sixty billion pounds more than they were receiving in income. That simply has to be dealt with, and the painful decisions announced today would be far worse if the deficit continued to spiral out of control.
It is refreshing to see a Chancellor be open and honest with the electorate about Labour’s disastrous economy legacy, and be up front about difficult decisions rather than hide them in the small print of the budget documents. I hope that many of the tough changes made today – such as the VAT rise – will prove to be temporary, and when the deficit is dealt with and the economy is growing strongly those decisions can be reversed.
Nevertheless, there were reasons to be cheerful within the budget statement. I’m pleased that nearly one million of the lowest-paid workers will be removed from income tax entirely, and that vital investment in the Metrolink and our local rail infrastructure has been protected.
Labour have been reduced to shrieking from the sidelines, and have no sensible alternative for reducing the deficit. Their own plans called for big cuts but they have refused to set out how they would have done this. I suspect that, had Labour been returned on May 6, they would themselves have implemented many of the decisions that they today decry.
Today has shown that the coalition has what it takes to govern responsibly and in the national interest. The previous administration mortgaged our future to pay for their wasteful spending, and now we have to make those repayments, but we can look to the future with renewed optimism. Today’s decisions will hurt, but the alternative would be far worse, and the future will be much brighter as a result.
Ahead of the emergency budget next week, let us not forget why the extra budget is necessary, and why the difficult decisions that the coalition government is taking are required.
- Every man, woman and child in Britain now owes £22,400
- We now have one of the worst deficits in Europe
- There are 2.47 million people out of work
- One in five young people is unemployed
- £3 billion is spent on benefit overpayments and £10 million on tax credits for the dead
- Britain’s gold was sold off by Gordon Brown at a 20 year low in the market.
This is Labour’s legeacy to Britain. Let us be in no doubt – the blame for the difficult decisions that need to be taken to ensure that Britain does not become another Greece should be laid firmly and squarely at Labour’s door.
The Desperate State Of The Labour Party
It’s interesting reading the tweets from Labour Party members and activists that appear in my own Twitter newsfeed. There’s a clear pattern emerging – a relentless negativity, no original thought and a complete failure to recognise the catastrophic state in which they left our economy. They really are in a desperate state – sad really as a strong democracy requires a credible opposition party, and there simply isn’t one at the moment.