May 15 2007
Gordon’s priorities
Gordon Brown’s campaign website and election pamphlets list eight priorities for his Premiership.
They do not include the promised strengthening of Parliament and our democracy. Mr Brown himself has voted in only 20% of all Commons divisions this Parliament (They work for you website) and spoken in only 12 debates in the last year. If he really wants a stronger Parliament he needs to lead by example - voting more often, volunteering more debates on crucial issues which he will use to set out his views to the House.
His??first five aims are ones most people can agree with. They are:
??An NHS that earns the trust of patients and staff
More affordable housing
Making Britain Number One for education
Every child to have the best start in life
Stronger, safer, more cohesive communities
??
??It is all couched in very out of date language. He wants to give "priority to the needs of hard working families" - ignoring the 30% of the population who live alone, and the millions of couples living together before having children or after they have left home.?? These are the same hard working families that he has taxed and taxed again, taxing their homes,their pension funds and their incomes to give more and more money to non working families and others.
The questions to ask about the priorities are:
1. To earn the trust of patients the NHS has to get on top of hospital infections, cut waiting times further and ensure poeple can get access to the best treatments and drugs. How is he going to deliver this?
2. Where are the affordable homes going to be built? Will more of them reflect the need for homes to buy rather than rent?
3. Will he apologise for attacking Magdalen Oxford over Laura Spence- surely Oxford is part of the solution to making Britain Number One in education, rather than part of the problem?
4. Will he allow more choice of school, so capable and energetic young people from poor backgrounds get a better chance in life than the local comprehensive with poor results?
5. How is he going to get on top of gun crime, anti social behaviour and casual violence in many of our communities?
??
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
That wont include Scottish and Welsh Housing, Education and NHS then.
New suite, no mandate.
.
[Reply]
I know very few people that want “affordable” housing, affordable usually means cheap and/or small and situated amongst people that no-one wants to live near. The vast majority of people would rather Gordon left enough of their hard earned pay in their pockets so that they could afford to buy a decent home in a decent location! The added cost of Home Information Packs does not help buyers at all !!
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