View From The House - 29th May 2003

Reprinted From The Lichfield Mercury

My office is not in the House of Commons. Instead, I am four minutes walk away in what used to be Scotland Yard. Maturer readers may remember the ITV series ‘No Hiding Place’ starring Raymond Frances as Chief Superintendent Lockhart. Each episode began with a black police car, bell ringing furiously, driving across Westminster Bridge then turning first right then left into the many turreted Scotland Yard. My office is in one of the turrets. But if my office were in the Palace of Westminster itself, my view from the House would show grim grey concrete slabs which have just been erected to stop suicide bombers driving a truck alongside the building and blowing up Parliament. Meanwhile I can hear an army helicopter hovering overhead. Lichfield is far more sane!

Since last month, we have had local elections. The Conservatives did well in our neck of the woods. Abbots Bromley is in the Lichfield Parliamentary constituency, but is in the South East Staffordshire Borough not Lichfield District. Very confusing. South East Staffs - which is headquartered in Burton – was won by the Conservatives with Labour losing out badly. So my pal and constituent, Alex Fox of A-B now becomes Leader of that Borough Council. Well done! Even more confusing, David Smith works in Lichfield but lives in Stonnal in Lichfield District which is not in the Lichfield Parliamentary constituency but that of Tamworth. Crazy? Anyway, he is Leader of Lichfield District, saw an increase in the Conservative controlled District Council, is my pal, but is not a constituent. Both he and Alex must now prove that the voters’ trust was not misplaced. There will be elections again in 4 years time and promises must be kept. I am sure they will be.

Which is more than Tony Blair’s Government has done. Six years into a Labour Government and they still fail to deliver the services they promised. More and more millions of taxpayers’ money has been thrown at the NHS and schools yet the pressures continue.

Much of the problems are self made. Teachers constantly tell me that what the Government gives with one hand, the Government takes away with another. It doesn’t need someone of Gordon Brown’s ability to recognise that if the Government give £1,000,000 extra to schools but add burdens on them to the tune of £1,000,001 they will be worse off. Yet that is precisely what the Government has done putting increased obligations on headteachers which have not been adequately funded.

And what does the Government do about this? The Education Secretary, Charles Clarke, blames someone else – the local education authorities ‘for holding Government money back’. Yet most LEA’s have had to put more money into schools, over and above the allocation from Government. There is a real crisis in Staffordshire. As readers will know, despite promises made back in 1997 and despite a reform of the funding formula, Staffordshire school children still get less than elsewhere. This has made matters worse. Are the local education authority to blame as the Government claims? Well, no. They put in over 6% more than the Government allocation. They are holding nothing back. The Government must reduce the burden of paperwork and costs on schools. They are being buried by it.