Parliament needs MPs with big ideas

Anyone thinking the Tories are competently managing the economy really needs a head examination. This Government has presided over a near doubling of our national debt, to almost £1.4 trillion. Our budget deficit, is around £92bn. We are paying almost £50bn a year on the interest of that debt. More than defence or education.

When base rate interest rates rise, so too will our payments, forcing us into default. This will happen as surely as night follows day.

However, it is well within the hands of the incompetent bunch of buffoons in our Parliament to end the deficit and start repaying the debt.

It can begin by getting British businesses to pay their dues, ending the £85bn in corporate allowances. It can also reinstate the five per cent tax cut to the rich and take control of the money supply to invest in our infrastructure and create much needed jobs.

However, the Tories will do none of these things. When your mates are treating the British public like cash cows, and are donating some of the proceeds to your party, why change anything?

We need big people with big ideas to replace this Parliament of pygmies.

From: Nigel Boddy, Former Lib Dem parliamentary researcher, Fife Road, Darlington.

The sting operation which put an end to both Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkinds’ parliamentary careers was sad because it was so unworthy of them both.

I am no friend of the Lib Dems after I took my bat and ball home over tuition fees. However, this latest sting operation involving a Lib Dem is not news. The Lib Dems struggle to find candidates anywhere, now they look likely to lose most of the seats they are holding.

The fact the man who was tricked, doubled up as party hack fundraiser and parliamentary candidate in an unwinnable seat in Brent should surprise no one as he probably swept the floors and made the coffees too. He has now resigned as candidate in the seat he was to contest, it is reported.

If some potential donor he doesn’t know wanders into his office and offers his party a cheque, so what? Compared to the cash for access scandal which engulfed Straw and Rifkind and the outlandish sums they allegedly asked for, this is nothing.

From: John Fisher, Menwith Hill, Harrogate.

NIGEL Farage has stated that British jobs should be given to British people regardless of colour and race. Despite Gordon Brown’s slogan ‘British Jobs for British people’, the Ukip leader is being condemned by Labour and the Conservatives as a racist (The Yorkshire Post, March 13).

Ukip appear to be receiving a constant supply of positive publicity provided by its opponents who are quick to condemn the party without checking the wording of the article or content of the interview that is being used to criticise the Ukip leader.

Despite Ukip attracting an increasing number of potential voters, a problem for Ukip is its reliance on a referendum vote for the UK to leave the EU. A referendum vote to remain in Europe may leave Ukip with an uncertain political future which in turn could affect the balance of power in a future hung parliament.

It would require a highly skilled fortune teller to predict the composition and effectiveness of the next government elected to serve this country.

From: Mr J Brown, Lamb Lane, Monk Bretton, Barnsley.

THE way that the New Labour government set about party politicising government media control, the election process and local government management means I shall be voting Ukip.

I believe that David Cameron’s real motivation – to deny or rarify the oxygen of publicity to Nigel Farage, the popularity of whose policies together with his common-touch eloquence would “win the debate” – is sound.

Imagine TV performances by Asquith, King George VI or Attlee as the decisive judgement on their ability. Hitler would have loved the medium. Someone really interested in raising the level of political debate would ban the televising of Tweedledum and Tweedledee confrontations which pander to the lowest political instincts of the masses.

From: Gerald Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.

NICK Clegg’s article (The Yorkshire Post, March 10) makes the point that this nation has benefited fom five years of stable government as a result of the Liberal Democrat decision to enter the coalition with the Conservatives. Overall, this has been a successful government which has seen a major economic turnaround since 2010. During this time, Liberal Democrat involvement has resulted in the restraint of the more extreme elements of the Tory party .

Coalition government had not happened in UK since 1945 and the public is understandably unused to the way it works. The reality is that neither participating party has been able to fully implement its manifesto. This is particularly true of the Liberal Democrats who, as the smaller party in the coalition, have had to concede more ground.

The current situation is much more fluid than it was in 2010 and another coalition government seems highly likely, as is the norm in most other European countries. The electorate will have to become accustomed to this situation and realistic as to what any participating party can deliver.