St Helens Story

Faith is something we all have in varying degrees. Many of us have voted for the same political party all our life. Its a little bit like supporting your local football team we find it impossible to change and no matter how bad things get we stick with it.

So I have voted Labour in every election since 1970

I joined the Labour party when I was 18 and have been though all it’s up and downs and fought to protect its identity when it was in turmoil during the infighting of the 1980’s

I joined because I believed in equality of opportunity for all and a society in which the most vulnerable are protected and the Labour Party seemed to reflect those values.

So I have watched with despair as the Labour Government has lost touch with many of those value culminating in the grotesque spectacle of a Labour Government presiding over the MP’s election expenses fiasco.

And now we have an election campaign in which the government has completely failed to explain how they will deal with the current budget deficit crisis.

I listen to Gordon Brown saying that we must protect public spending on education and health when he knows that drastic action will have to be taken by the next government. It is true that the Labour Government has over the 13 years of government invested large amounts of public money in schools, health and other public services. Much of it has been invested in key services but also large amounts of money have been used to enhance salaries for Head Teachers, GP’s and other Doctors, Chief Executives of local authorities and many other Senior Public Sector employees, whilst also enriching many consultancy companies who have made millions from the public sector.

So blindly protecting public services as the government is stating during this election is both impossible due to the budget deficit crisis and also because it will be the ordinary working people of this country who will have to pay for the cost of inaction either through higher taxes and/or the ending of key public services.

So what is the alternative. The Conservatives will be able to reduce the deficit but any one can do that. The issue is how it is done. My concern with any Conservative Government will be that they will be incapable of reducing the deficit with the skill and subtlety necessary to avoid damaging key public services.

The track record of Conservative Governments both nationally and locally gives me little confidence that they can reduce the deficit in a way that removes the waste whilst protecting key services.

So what about voting for the best local candidate.

In Chris Mole, the current Labour MP I have no doubt about Chris’s dedication or commitment to the job.

However I have serious concerns about his ability to influence a future Labour government to change its ways.

His determination that the changes to heart treatment at Ipswich Hospital should go ahead were in my view wrong. He failed to understand the concerns of local people about the impact of transporting patients and family’s long distances for treatment and was not open to persuasion by some of us who thought his views were wrong.

Then the decision by the government not to go ahead with the changes to unitary local government in Suffolk and Ipswich were a complete failure by Chris to influence government policy. The shocking waste of public money in preparing for a unitary change which was then cancelled by the government only seems to reinforce my view that the government lost its way. Unitary government is a simple and effective way both to improve the accountability of local government by having only one council and to also produce significant financial savings. In Ipswich it has cost money and Chris clearly failed to deliver.

So even if I was not in despair with the Labour Government I seriously doubt if I can vote for Chris.

So for the first time in my life I am undecided. Maybe one of the other candidates will be able to persuade me. We will have to wait and see.