Security
When it comes to the next election, and as Gordon Brown ponders when he will call the next election, it is useful to start thinking about the themes that are going to be important. In 1997 Labour said that their priority would be ‘Education, Education, Education’. Well, a decade later is that still the biggest concern for us all.
My views is that what should be a focus for us all is the word ‘Security’.
Security of our energy supply
We buy our gas from Russia, our coal from South Africa and our oil from the Middle East. A great swathe of the energy needs of the UK depend on some of the most politically unstable parts of the world. Is that sensible?
One of the biggest questions we will all need to ask is if we want to have more security over our supply of energy then how do we do it? We cannot open up the mines again because the cost of production would make UK energy prices probably higher than they are even now. The likelihood of renewables providing either enough energy supplies, or reasonably priced energy supplies, is frankly questionable. This means we need to take some fast decisions about the future of nuclear energy. The simple fact is that whilst nuclear energy might well have risks - although the French seem to have been using it successfully - it is probably the largest producer of energy that will ensure environmentally sound production of energy. As I have said before, judging whether what we see of our changing climate is down to CO2 or not is a matter for scientists, not the layman. But if the security of our energy supplies can be maintained, whilst also securing an brighter environmental future, then it should be backed.
Security of our borders
The UK is a welcoming home for legal migration. However, there are somewhere between 500,000 and 800,000 illegal immigrants that have come to this country. The Lib Dems have announced they want them all to be given a free right to stay and gain a legalised status.
Part of the problem lies with the open borders policy we seem to have accidentally approved. Who can forget the refugees from Sangatte fleeing through the channel tunnel?
The fact is that Labour have belatedly taken on the Conservative policy of having a new border police responsible for securing our borders and checking on the right of entry.
Despite all this, it is clear that the pressures being put upon UK citizens by the increasing number of migrants - both legal and illegal - means that this will undoubtedly be a real issue at the next election.
Security of our economy
Northern Rock? Rising interest rates?
This Government would probably claim they eventually saved a disaster in the UK banking system. That is a debatable point - and some say not the problems are not over - but the fact is that what it has revealed is the underlying weakness of the British economy to such shocks.
Remember, the fault-lines in the Northern Rock were not because of anything done in this country but because of the problems faced in the US mortgage market. This is why we need to ensure that we are not just growing an economy that is close to Europe but one that is also close to the US, as well as Asia.
The fact is these are difficult times for the housing market. Queues outside banks do not give comfort for those buying and selling homes or investing in the future.
But equally, these are difficult times for household incomes, squeezed by the stinging increases in tax that Gordon Brown has perpetrated over ten years. Just look at Council Tax. Feeling financially secure is going to be a growing theme for all of us.
Security of our homes
This Government will reel of a flurry of statistics if you talk about rising crime. People just do not feel safe any more. There has been rising knife crime and rising gun crime witnessed by large numbers of young deaths in South London. Gordon Brown goes on about stop and search and action on crimes, but the problem is these are just old policies being re-announced. The real problem for us is the growth of a gang culture amongst our children and young people, cast on the scrap heap by the lack of hope this government creates for them through, what even Labour MP’s agree, is a failing New Deal system.
We need to see more, real, police on our streets, not the 16,000 community support officers. We need to see police on the streets cutting bureaucracy, not using Brown’s handheld computers to help them fill the forms out. They should be scrapping the forms.
Security of our food supply
I am optimistic about the future of British farming. Our farmers are producing good quality food at reasonable prices. Equally, I think I detect a change in the attitude to food. BSE demonstrated to everyone that there exists a frailty between the quality of our food supply and the health of our nation.
But in this climate change world can it still be right that we import our lamb from New Zealand? I also sense that people care about being able to say where their food came from. This Government has made a mess of farming and country life with its catastrophic handling of single farm payments. The first outbreak of foot and mouth was a disaster, but think how farmers must feel when it is their own Governments laboratories that are allowing the disease to get a hold again. We must not forget that it was Gordon Brown who cut the funding to DEFRA that might have well led to the leaching of the disease through decaying infrastructure.
Security for our country
Our armed forces are over committed and under resourced. They are asked to live and work in appalling circumstances. They have housing that many in Local Authority social housing would refuse to live in and they have equipment that is so poor they end up buying their own. We have the smallest number of armed forces probably since WWII and the smallest number of ships imaginable. In 1960 we had 9 aircraft carriers, we now have two. We had 48 subs and we now have 14. We had 55 destroyers and there are now 8. In the meantime we are fighting wars in two countries and trying our best to defend this country from further terrorist attacks.
Security of our health
I was somewhat staggered by some the recent reports of Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani when speaking about comparisons between health-care here and in the US. We have always criticised the system of health-care in the US, making the claim that our system is better because it is free at the point of use. He said:
“I had prostate cancer seven years ago. My chance of survival in the US is 82%; my chance of survival if I was here in England is below 50%. Breast cancer is very similar.”
If that is the case then does it not shame this Government that despite ten years and billions of extra investment we have a health care system that, from a medical standpoint, appears light years behind the US, a system of which we have been so critical.
I have not even touched on the issue of hospital acquired infections. Brown’s answer for this problem is a ‘deep clean’ of our hospitals and yet the very nature of these infections means that you can get a case the day after you have done the deep clean!
Security of our constitution
The mess they have made of our constitution and the real danger that this Government will deny the people of Britain a referendum, on this new direction in European policy, is another issue for the election.
Ten years after they started Lord’s reforms they have still not completed it and in the meantime we have a broken democracy wrecked by their shambolic handling of this issue.
The Human Rights Act seems to have destroyed the security of our constitution for some whilst giving inalienable rights to others. Taken together they represent a fundamental change to the way we as citizens feel empowered. To take an example, there are dozens of people up and down this country who feel they have been over ruled and threatened by archaic planning regulations that appear not to protect them, their homes and their families. It allows almost any housing to be built without any regard for the well-being of those who live near it or those who will eventually have to buy it.
So, if an election is due it appears to me that there are very many things that the debate will focus on but the well-being and feeling of security of people should be at the fore of the debate. Will that be the case? Who knows, I guess we will have to wait until the next election in 2009!
