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Government inaction on the challenges facing the country

Posted by Kate Green, MP for Stretford and Urmston, at 10:07, Fri 18 November 2011:

It’s been a short week in parliament this week – we were sitting for only two days, just Monday and Tuesday, and I’ve had a bit more time back in the constituency.

That’s been very nice for me, but it’s got me thinking about the government’s legislative programme.

Amazingly, we’re starting to run out of bills to debate. There has been a huge pile-up of bills in the House of Lords: the education; health; protection of freedoms; welfare reform; legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders bills, were mostly rushed through the House of Commons earlier this year, often without sufficient time for proper debate. Now they’ve been stuck in a backlog in the Lords, while in the Commons, there’s little new coming through.

I don’t know if it’s bad management, a deliberate attempt to prevent proper scrutiny, a government that actually believes in doing as little as possible, or one that’s just turnout of ideas. Probably a bit of everything.

So Labour MPs are filling up the time. This week, my colleague Graham Jones introduced a bill to tighten up the law on scrap metal theft. I was delighted to be one of the bill’s sponsors.

This is a big problem across the country, and we’ve suffered our share of chaos from this crime in Trafford- church bells and the lead from church roofs stolen, the metrolink out of action as soon as the new Chorlton link opened, because of cable theft, Partington without telephone lines for days last year, again because of the theft of cabling.

I’ve met local police officers to discuss what can be done to tackle this crime, which is costing all of us millions of pounds each year. They’re delighted that MPs from across the different political parties proposing this bill. Now, we’re hoping the government will allow time for it to be debated and put into law.

Unemployment figures were announced this week. They’re disastrous. Female unemployment rose by a further 43,000, and is at a 23-year high. And unemployment among young people topped the million mark, the highest since records began in 1992.

That’s a shocking waste of talent and potential. Young people are desperate to work. But this government simply stands by as they watch their futures drain away.

It makes me very angry.

Labour has an alternative: the 5-point plan announced by Ed Balls to get our economy moving NOW. Repeating the bankers’ bonus tax would allow us to create 100,000 new jobs – 18,000 could be for young people in the North West. Temporarily reversing the increase in VAT to 20% would help hard pressed family budgets. Bringing forward infrastructure projects on roads and schools would give a boost to the construction industry, and reducing VAT on home improvements would also help the economy. And a national insurance tax break for small businesses taking on extra employees would also help create much-needed jobs.

The government wants to blame Europe for our economic problems. But Labour’s 5-point plan proves that there are steps we can take ourselves to protect our economy.

Finally, I know many Trafford residents are taking a keen interest in the plans for the future of Trafford General Hospital, and NHS Greater Manchester are now beginning a programme of public engagement and discussion. This will take place over the next few months, although any formal consultation about changes to services won’t happen until after May next year. So this is a good chance for local people to have an early say in the NHS services we think are important to us here in Trafford.

I’ve signed up for twitter updates about the consultation – @NewHealthDeal if you’d like to do this too – and a facebook page has been set up as well. I’m also pressing NHS managers to make sure that public meetings and information sessions are advertised widely to local people.

And please do make sure I’m aware of your views. I meet NHS managers regularly, and I want to be able to pass on your concerns and get answers to your questions. There’s an enormous amount of change going on in the NHS, and I want to be sure we protect the best services possible for everyone in Trafford.