Three and a half years ago, I believed that this government would lead us into trouble, and thought my experience would be useful. I decided to stand against the government in my home county. My mistake was only to underestimate the damage Labour would do.
I’ve seen how angry fellow residents are with the Prime Minister who promised an end to boom and bust, only to take us into the biggest bust for 70 years. Businesses are frustrated with the lack of apprentices. The public sector knows that money is wasted – government advertising spend was up last year while front line services at our hospital are cut or threatened. The pensioners know Gordon Brown raided their pension fund dividends and sold all our gold at a record low. And parents worry for their young, when university studies lead to debts not jobs.
We are the sick man of Europe today – with the greatest percentage of debt to GDP of developed nations. This government has no rival to wasting taxpayer money. Our own MP’s pet project – the regionalisation of our Fire Control centre – is now £300m over budget, and at least two years behind deadline. Imagine what we could do with £300 million. Regenerate the Railway Triangle, build a new stadium for GCFC, create a new athletics track, buy out and do up two dozen messy houses, fill in every pothole – you name it.
Yet it doesn’t have to be like this. With new political leadership lots can be achieved.
Here in Gloucester I will spread regeneration throughout the city, as well as the Docks, so that the Railway Triangle looks totally different in ten years time; build new houses on brown field sites; bring new sports events to our city – as I have done with the Gloucester 20/20s this summer; support vocational education and introduce more real apprenticeships to support manufacturers like Messier-Dowty who provide jobs for our young.
And I will continue to listen to and work with the vulnerable, the mentally ill and the disabled across all communities. I will not close the city council, our grammar schools or Post Offices – and will give our city decent leadership: aware of our history, and focused on achieving new and great things together. It really is time for change.
( 4 comments ) Tags: Fire Control centre, Gloucester, Gordon Brown, Railway Triangle
Comment by Arthur Complainer on April 6, 2010 at 10:20 pm
Well done! Mentioning the Fire Control System. The Select Committee did a good job reviewing the very poor performance by those delivering it. My prediction is, it will not deliver by mid 2012 without having its scope substantially cut .
What will you do to ensure it delivers by the middle of 2012 without substantially reduced scope or increased cost?
Comment by Mike Collier on April 9, 2010 at 9:29 pm
The root cause of the current poor performance of the Firecontrol Project is poor management by CLG. It started with a requirement based procurement, written by people who did not posess sufficient knowledge to accurately describe the requirements of such a system. It then progressed to the initial delivery where CLG tried to micro-manage the prime contractor. This involved preventing constructive discussions between those providing the system and those that would eventually have to use it, while simultaneously and fundamentally failing to develop top down policies which could draw together 46 disparate groups of reluctant end users.
Oh and the contract with the prime contractor incurs huge expense in an effort to prevent …escalating costs!
Comment by Arthur Complainer on April 10, 2010 at 3:34 pm
The Fire Control Project is a typical example of Governmental programmes. It does not bode well for the attainment of future efficiency savings.
From my experience with Government Departments the quality of senior and middle management is so poor, it will prove impossible to optimise efficiency savings irrespective of who wins the General Election.
After all, if these senior & middle managers were so good, they’d have already made any potential efficiency savings.
I wonder how many Senior/Director level staff are fired from Government Departments? Does anybody have a reliable set of statistics?
Comment by Sylvia Guaschi on May 2, 2010 at 9:28 pm
This has nothing to do with the election directly. I was involved in a minor car accident in Gloucester today which resulted in my car having to be towed away, I had to wait for sometime for the breakdown services to arrive. Richard Graham was the only person to stop and enquire if I was OK (woman on her own, well and truly in her third age !). I was impressed given that he must be extremely busy. Obviously a caring person.
Thanks Richard and good luck on Thursday.