I read with interest the article in the Northwich Guardian this week by our new M.P. Andrew Cooper, on why the King’s Speech would be good for Mid Cheshire. I must say that I was a little surprised by some of these supposed benefits for the people and businesses of Northwich, Middlewich and Winsford and indeed, by some of the omissions in his statement.
On the economy, he omits the fact that Labour’s main change so far is to strengthen the role of the OBR which, far from helping control the economy, will place it in a stranglehold. Politicians, no matter which party they represent, will no longer be able to control the economy as it will now be completely outsourced to an unelected quango.
The proposed legislation to ban zero hours contracts will seriously disadvantage workers in Mid Cheshire who need flexibility. We already have strong legal protection to stop employers behaving irresponsibly, so this new legislation will simply restrict jobs and remove employment opportunities.
On the campaign trail all candidates advocated for better bus services, particularly for Winsford and Middlewich, so the idea of an integrated local system is good news. Taking them into public ownership, however, is unlikely to deliver the service we need at a price which is acceptable. It will be fascinating to see how this legislation works in our area.
Whilst I am delighted that breakfast clubs will be provided for all children, I am more concerned that this Government seems determined to review the national curriculum, again. Their plans seem to involve scrapping the current system which, for all its faults, delivers outcomes measurably better than those in Wales and Scotland, and instead simply level education down. Aspiring children will be left with high and dry under these circumstances.
Their plans for the NHS so far seem to amount to simply pouring even more money into a failing system. Despite the Secretary of State for Health stating publicly that the NHS is broken, I see no coherent plan yet for change. Promising to slash waiting lists is fine, but remember, they can only do this by utilising the currently unused capacity in the private sector. When Reform U.K. proposed this, we were accused of trying to privatise the NHS. Now Labour is doing it I’m waiting for a similar outcry, though I suspect I might be waiting some time.
Finally, their proposed legislation in the housing market will be the final nail in the coffin for many landlords, who will simply sell up. Seemingly carrying on a disastrous policy that the Conservatives were thinking of implementing, far from improving the market for renting, this will further squeeze the availability of rental property and drive up rents. Whilst we wait for the promised 1.5 million new homes, more and more families will struggle to find affordable housing anywhere in Mid Cheshire.
Of course, delivering all of their legislative agenda will require billions of pounds of our money. So far, despite having complete visibility of the state of public finances before entering office, they appear to be trotting out the ‘we didn’t realise how bad it was’ line before then floating the suggestion that the rich can pay for all of this.
If this is the case, I have bad news for all of you; the rich are every one of us, and not a single person will be better off if they implement their ‘ambitious plan that will improve our economy’.