It is an interesting question because the government and politicians have control of our lives from cradle to grave and are they fulfilling that responsibility properly.
If you look at the Coronavirus crisis the Government has performed exceptionally well. Rishi Sunak has secured the economy, the furlough scheme has saved mass unemployment and The Prime Minister’s Leadership and co-ordination skills have been outstanding.
At the same time as managing the crisis they have had to contend with Brexit, Northern Ireland, and devolution in Scotland. All of which have been dealt with properly despite the media trying to find fault, conspiracies and generally play mischief.
I take my hat off to The Prime Minister and his team for keeping their heads when all around them people were losing theirs. At times it must have been akin to trying to do a task, with a bunch of children yapping around your heels upsetting them.
The trouble is our media is really big business and they need to earn revenues, so it’s more lucrative for them to highlight the salacious aspects of government and not focus on boring thongs like facts and context.
But this is not a rant against the media, just a shout out that they do not help, they hinder.
So, the Magnificent 7; Boris, Hancock, Education, Van Tam, NHS head, Rishi and Lord Frost saved the country being tipped over the precipice into financial oblivion.
At what expense?
Besides the colossal bill, we have done nothing about improving the NHS, Social Care, Homelessness Education, Housing, Job Creation, the relationship with the police, Revitalizing communities over the country, migrants, local taxes especially business rates, taxation; and many, many other social matters. The only real success which will be acknowledged is Liz Truss’s Trade Deal successes.
The Government let the cat out of the bag when they suddenly found £300bn to pay for protecting economy. Money well spent, but what they did was to highlight that if they wanted to, they could move quickly and fund adequately; the only thing is you must be part of the revenue producing economy and not a cost.
If you are a cost, then you get less attention and woefully little funding.
What happened to the adage that the government would look after us from cradle to grave, provide us with a field of opportunity within which we can prosper and provide for our families.
The trouble is there are a lot of good ideas from capable people in socially focused institutions that upon examination could save money or costs could be redistributed amongst them.
Is it really beyond the capabilities of the government to get people of the street once and for all? No. Just read some of the factual reports from Shelter and … who have several solutions that would cost less to implement than we spend today on benefits, provide people with shelter that is theirs and encourage to return to employment and contribute to society.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is clear, if you help people to create the foundation of security and safety they will worry less about where the next penny is coming from and be productive. It is a fact. Leaving them on the street is counterproductive, it is a negative exercise as this article shows:
Facts about homelessness (connection-at-stmartins.org.uk).
One of the outcomes of the crisis as we emerge from the Covid Bunker into the sunlight; is that people are ready for change and they look to the government to lead it.
We need to turn our attention away from Westminster gossip as the average man and woman in Strabane, Inverness, Newcastle, Llandudno, St. Ives, Brighton, and Ramsgate, and all pints in-between; they just do not care.
They care about their job, their home, their children, their family, their town, and their future.
The Labour Party would be better focusing on social matters and attacking the government rather than trivial matters that grab headlines but are easily forgotten. Labour and the Liberal Democrats used to share a lot in common with their community-based views, they make ideal bed fellows and should form an alliance to hold the Conservatives to account.
It is not the job of the media to set the agenda; they should report it but leave the experts to set it. The Police should police it and the Armed Forces should continue to protect us. Probably the only two organisations that function properly.
We remember Bevan who founded the NHS because that was a landmark policy, we remember Churchill for leading us through the War, and we think of Thatcher as someone who proved that you could protect people by sensible legislation.
We do not remember the rest of the thousands of MPs who came and failed to make their mark. Parliamentarians should reflect and ask a simple question, ‘What will my legacy be’, What will I be remembered for and what difference did I make? What did Blair, Major, Brown, do, what is their legacy?
I would sadly say extraordinarily little would be my verdict. Yet they had 65m people that they could galvanize to lead, organize, research, and provide solutions. Boris needs to tap into this pool of talent to get the best on board, Branson, Sugar, Matthew Taylor, to name but three. He’s known as a great coordinator and adept at putting teams together that deliver; go on then!
If you would like to read more about the solutions that could be considered, then just look at these organisations and papers; that is where the truth can be read about the true state of the nation and what can be done to fix it.