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1:00 AM 28th October 2024
business
Opinion

It’s Not Surprising That Politicians Are Not Trusted

By a ‘constructive critic.’
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
It’s barely three months since a new government took power, promising to bring back “grown-up politics” and establishing trust with the electorate. The public kicked out a tired and ineffective government. Many people voted to throw out the incumbent Conservative government in favour of a fresh and enthusiastic Labour government.

Many felt it was time for a change, and the Labour Party is in government with a massive majority, which we can assume will be leading the country for at least the next five years. Our future general wellbeing and prosperity is largely in their hands.

They set their ambitions to grow the economy, improve health and social care, and assist many "working people," although there is some ambiguity about who exactly these people are.

They promised open and honest government and an end to “Tory Sleaze.”

Their 'honeymoon’ period was surprisingly short, and reports of accepting gifts started to taint the Prime Minister, Chancellor, and Deputy Prime Minister. Some Labour MPs were suspended for not toeing the party line, and decisions like freezing the cold weather payments to millions of pensioners cast a dark shadow over the government, and this was made worse by stories of disharmony at Number Ten and the departure, so soon after the election, of Chief of Staff, Sue Grey.

His first hundred days in office probably haven’t gone the way Keir Starmer anticipated or wanted. I guess teething troubles are to be expected, and the electorate probably voted the last government out rather than Labour in.

There are, however, a few things that deserve further scrutiny by a government that promised honesty, integrity, and transparency.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, spent many media-facing hours chastising the previous Conservative government and excoriating their management of the economy. Both said words to the effect that tough times require difficult choices and warned that we should expect some painful outcomes from their first budget.

However, if we accept the idea that tough times justify tough choices, which is not unreasonable, and if the new government is living up to its own hype, they should acknowledge that the last government was confronted by the COVID pandemic and the Global Energy Crisis related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Our national debt increased by £400 billion as a result of supporting the country through COVID, and it further increased as a result of the billions spent to lessen the effects of electricity and gas bills on households and businesses.

Neither the pandemic nor the energy crisis were a consequence of the last government’s policy decisions but seriously undermined the previous Chancellor's room to manoeuvre and forced him also to make ‘difficult and painful’ decisions on tax and spending.

The Tories can’t say too much considering the disaster that was Liz Truss’s short reign, but a lot of what the Labour Party is saying is unbalanced and a dreadful example of ‘politics speak.’

Minister of Health, Wes Streeting, has rightly pointed out the parlous state of the NHS in England; however, he repeatedly puts all the blame at 14 years of Tory government. He doesn’t mention that in 1999 devolution gave local control of the NHS to the Scottish and Welsh administrations.

The Conservative Party has had no say or involvement in either Scotland, led by Labour, followed by years of SNP control, or Wales, which has had a Labour administration for all the 25 years since devolution.

It's difficult to make a case that either the NHS in Wales or Scotland is in a better place than the NHS in England. So, the problems are not solely at the feet of a Conservative administration.

Before and after the election, the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, made a promise that there would be no increases in national insurance contributions. However, she recently clarified that this promise did not include employers' contributions to NIC. The Federation of Small Businesses has pointed out that most UK businesses are SMEs, and they suggest SME owners are ‘working people,’ and other organisations have pointed out the impact this may have in job creation and even on future pay rises for ‘working people.’

The Chancellor’s big claim to be trusted with the economy was based on her insistence on sticking to the ‘fiscal rules.’ However, as we face her first budget, she has changed the way in which debt is calculated to allow for more borrowing for investment. Surely this amounts to breaking the fiscal rules.

French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr coined the phrase "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" in 1849, meaning that the more things change, the more they remain the same.