View from Westminster - May 10, 2012 (From Kidderminster Shuttle)
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View from Westminster - May 10, 2012
4:30pm Wednesday 9th May 2012 in MP's View - Mark Garnier
AS is often the case with a weekly column, by the time the words I write are published, the big news will have happened.
This week, it is the Queen’s Speech, the day in which the coming year’s Parliamentary agenda is announced.
There is, as ever, a fair degree of speculation with what will be in it, but there are, for me, certain red lines that I feel are incredibly important.
The last couple of years have been spent dealing with the two huge problems inherited from the previous government: the chronic state of the public finances; and the shattered economy, struggling under a broken banking system and fatally wounded Euro zone.
Of course, dealing with these problems is well under way and there is simply no option to tackling them head on (where we can).
But whilst there has been a great deal over the last couple of years that is far more than just fire fighting – education reform, handing power to local communities, establishing the European referendum lock, changing the way parliament works to allow more input from backbenchers, working to help businesses and entrepreneurs – for the future, I want to see how we can all be sure that the future will be better than the past.
I want to know that our kids will get a job. I want to know that someone in Wyre Forest setting up a new business will have the best possible chance of success, creating new jobs. And I want to know that our public services will be run better, and more efficiently, than they have up to now.
In short, I want those who are strivers and hard workers to be confident that they will be supported, and not held back by a something-for nothing-culture that they are asked to pay for.
The local elections last week told me that this is important for people as well.
A year ago, in the face of stinging budget cuts, the electorate told us “we understand what you have to do”. This year they said “we may understand what you need to do, but we will not tolerate incompetence or irrelevance.”
Murdoch-Gate, jerrycan blunders, pasty (and other) tax own-goals are avoidable and it is right that people speak up against this. But it is also important that what the government does is relevant and frankly, gay marriage and House of Lords reform may be important to some people, but for the vast majority, it is simply a signal of self indulgence by someone who is out of touch.
With House of Lords reform being, apparently, on the radar for a hundred years, the Whitehall adage “if you can’t fix it, it ain’t broke” has never been truer.
CONTACT YOUR MP
Email: mark.garnier.mp@ parliament.uk.
Telephone: 020 7219 7198 or 01562 746771.
Write: 9a Lower Mill Street, Kiddermin-ster, DY11 6UU, or House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.
Comments(17)
Stephen Brown
says...
5:52pm Wed 9 May 12
"The last couple of years have been spent dealing with the two huge problems inherited from the previous government: the chronic state of the public finances; and the shattered economy, struggling under a broken banking system and fatally wounded Euro zone."
Frankly, I must have missed all of this hard work he and his government are engaged in because public debt has gone up, unemployment has gone up, the banking sector is still strangling the economy and the euro is nosediving not helped in part thanks to Camerons jiggy in out in out dance on the euro rescue package.
Mark must be spinning so fast he's made himself dizzy and don't remember what's actually happened. Still, it don't matter because if he doesn't remember or it's inconvenient he will make it up - like on the caravan tax - say one thing do another.
The government is so devoid of ideas all it can come up with is more worker bashing to 'boost' the economy. Then, last but not least, half hearted lords reform and proposals on gay marriage that can't even find favour among some of its own MP's.
Out of touch? Yes, that's right Mark but it's you that's out of touch not the people you are supposed to represent.
Here's a tip for you Mark - it is broke and it is in need of fixing. But it is getting obvious to many now that you and yours ain't the ones to fix it 'cus you either ain't got the tools or ain't looking hard enough to find them.
Shibdrift
says...
8:25pm Wed 9 May 12
kidderlord
says...
11:03pm Wed 9 May 12
Still we shouldnt get downhearted as Murk will change his view again this time next week and will set up a petition to support Gay Marriage like he has to save the Caravans from VAT- watch out Gay Pride - if you see a middle aged man with curly hair and a self satisfied grin walking around, dont trust him!
Gobby Robby
says...
11:17pm Wed 9 May 12
HowardM
says...
10:36am Thu 10 May 12
walkerno5
says...
10:36am Thu 10 May 12
How long would it bloody take to get gay marriage in for heavens sake? It's self evidently the right thing to do, ignore the bigots and you could do it in a sodding afternoon!
Lords reform is more difficult but grasp the nettle - someones got to do it eventually. There are enough MPs dossing about collecting the cash and doing very little legislative work, get a cross party committee together and get the job done.
If these losers can't focus on more than two or three things at a time, we're going to need to build a better bunch of losers.
Red Flag Dan
says...
4:28pm Thu 10 May 12
Is that also the official view of Wyre Forest Conservative Association and/ or the WFDC Conservative Group?
Gobby Robby
says...
5:27pm Thu 10 May 12
Rob Ireland
says...
8:23pm Thu 10 May 12
Mary79
says...
9:15pm Thu 10 May 12
Does that leave anyone but the rich and and bankers whose vote he wants?
I would look forward to a humiliating defeat for him at the next election because he has just about managed to alienate nearly everyone else. But is that going to happen because I missed out the majority who cannot be bothered to find out what he actually stands for when voting.
Red Flag Dan
says...
9:23pm Thu 10 May 12
He even said,“I don’t support gay marriage despite being a Conservative. I support gay marriage because I’m a Conservative”.
Now they are dropping it.
Most Tory MPs are far to discreet to speak out against it, but not our Mark!
It looks like Garnier has caught himself in a bear trap and his protests conform to the caricature of Tories as a bunch of homophobic old ****, longing for a better yesterday.
The Tories are still the nasty party, and don't let anyone tell you anything different!
kidderlord
says...
12:28am Fri 11 May 12
Mr Jupiter
says...
11:32am Sat 12 May 12
All this government's policies, like all the last government's policies and undoubtedly all the next government's policies are or will be made either in Europe, or dictated from Washington.
None of this stuff Cameron-Clegg promotes is their own idea. For example these shifts toward localism (subsidiarity) are entirely driven by the EU and all the cuts are dictated by the IMF.
I'd much rather hear from the organ grinders myself, but there was nobody from Goldman Sachs available for comment.
Stephen Brown
says...
2:14pm Sat 12 May 12
Tom_K
says...
3:37pm Tue 15 May 12
For him to suggest that equality is a "signal of self indulgence" is utterly outrageous. He has used this weekly post to support Middle East dictatorships, to mislead about his position on the Caravan tax and many other things, but none have made me as angry as that one sentence. I imagine that Mark also feels that women wanting the right to vote was also self indulgent? He certainly wasn't keen on women having the right to choose an abortion when he voted with Nadine Dorries' attempt to restrict access to abortions last year.
Mark's comments in this blog are all the more shocking for me when he replied to my email about marriage equality saying he would vote in favour, adding "you make a strong argument for and the case against is both weak and bigoted". I think that we can all see that Mark's case against same-sex marriage is weak and by his own definition bigoted.
Tom_K
says...
3:59pm Tue 15 May 12
Another interesting quote to not is on Mark's website where he claims he is "working for ALL Wyre Forest on EVERY issue". It would appear that he forgot to add "except for the self indulgent LGBT community".
Jon D says...
5:32pm Wed 9 May 12
"problems inherited from the previous government...the shattered economy". Not true Garnier's monkey, as Mark will tell you the economy was growing well when the Tories came to power only for that growth to be extinguished by cutting too far & too fast which even one of your fellow monkeys could have told you always sends the economy back into a recession.
"I want to know that our kids will get a job" - yes but only with worse conditions so they work longer for less as Mark is desperate to repatriate worker protections back to Europe.
"I want to know that our public services will be run better, and more efficiently, than they have up to now" - that's why Mark wants to transfer them to the voluntary sector in the Big Society.
Gay marriage not relevant? Hmmm, I wonder if Mark's a homophobe or is it just his monkey?
This blog is a joke. Next time toss the typewriter to the walrus enclosure see if they can come up with anything better. Too many lies, getting a bit stale.