It’s the start of a new week covering the run up to the General Election and there are a few things to comment on. Europe seems to be moving to the right – particularly in Germany and France but also in the UK with Reform getting more votes based on opinion polls. But the national media, particularly the BBC, is wallowing in nostalgia for the good old days when we won World War II. Is it not time when we spent less time on this now very historic event and looked more to the future?
Personally I could not care less if Rishi Sunak chose to miss part of the D-Day celebrations. He needed to ration his time and spend it on more important matters.
The main UK political parties are talking about policies that they feel will be attractive to the public – more police, more prisons, an attack on anti-social behaviour, National Service to instil responsibility in teenagers; but until the full party manifestos are published (hopefully this week), it may be premature to comment.
The key issues that need tackling are surely uncontrolled immigration, housing provision and the capacity of the NHS – the last two of those made much more difficult by the first. That is why some political parties are doing better than others.
But the Labour party has not changed – they are now promising to save more jobs at Port Talbot by keeping one blast furnace in operation when Tata is losing £1 million per day at present on its UK operations. Keeping unprofitable steel making businesses afloat with Government hand-outs is as mad as keeping coal mines open in the 1980s. Mrs Thatcher put a stop to that nonsense and we need someone with courage to do the same now for steel making in the UK plus another Dr Beeching to rationalise the UK rail network which consumes billions of pounds in subsidies every year.
But the national media instead like to spend time on trivia – such as the unfortunate death of Dr. Mike Mosley – a minor TV personality who was unwise enough to go for an arduous hike in 40 degree temperatures and with no phone.
I will defer a final decision on who I will be voting for until I have read the manifestos and seen how all the hand-outs are to be paid for when the real priority is to cut taxes not increase them.
The Tories have promised to reduce the burden on motorists by outlawing the London ULEZ expansion among other things. But as others have pointed out, they could have done that two years ago but didn’t. The same applies to their promises to reduce immigration. That is one reason why Reform are doing so well.
When you have the power to change things, you have to use it!
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
You can “follow” this blog by entering your email address in the box below. You will then receive an email alerting you to new posts as they are added.
Hi Roger. Your analysis of the issues of this election are spot on; and only Reform UK are likely to bring immigration under control; other parties require the cheap labour to artificially boost GDP for their soundbites, regardless of the fact that it drops per capita as a result.