View From The House - 5th August 1999

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

With a huge fanfare, the Government issued its Annual Report to the British people. I have it in front of me now. Lots of colour photos with large red captions trumpeting the achievements of our all-inclusive New Labour government.

The Report is typical. It is misleading, full of soundbites, and cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousand of pounds to publish it. I cannot help but think that if there had been less soundbites during the Northern Ireland peace negotiations ("seismic shifts" and "the heavy hand of destiny on our shoulders" etc), David Trimble and others would have had more flexibility to negotiate a settlement.

Reading between the lines this Annual Report reveals that Labour's words are not being matched by action. They have failed to deliver on three out of four of their election pledges. Of the quarter they have delivered on, three out of four are damaging or pointless.

Labour are simply not delivering on their promises. Of the 177 pledges set out in the report, many have been fudged, others have been delayed and one in five have failed completely. Worse still, of the pledges undertaken, far too many are simply damaging in effect. On economic growth, on welfare reform and on the public services Labour polices are leading to longer-term failure.

Labour are also failing to deliver their five election pledges:

• Three out of four children are in rising class sizes.

• Total waiting lists, including those waiting to get on the waiting list have gone up.

• The number of unemployed 18-24 year olds who are unemployed for over six months is going up.

• Labour's stealth taxes will cost every worker £1500 a year.

• The number of police has fallen by over one thousand.

In Staffordshire, the promise to provide fair funding for Staffordshire schools in the first year of a Labour Government has been broken (now the Government say they won't even begin to consider the problem until after the next general election and even then they won't make any guarantees); and since changes in the Health Service introduced in the last couple of years, Lichfield and Burntwood patients have to wait twice as long to get to hospital in Sutton as for a patient in Birmingham. How long can Labour keep blaming the Conservatives? (Particularly as Tony Blair seems to take particular pride in trying to be more right-wing than Margaret Thatcher!)

On a happier note of cross party unity, I was delighted that my old friend Keith Vaz MP (now the Minister in the Lord Chancellor's Department) was able to come up to Lichfield and talk some sense about the proposed closure of the magistrates and county courts in the City. This would sideline Lichfield yet again and I hope that conclusions drawn by the Staffordshire Magistrates Courts Service will be reversed. Watch this space.