Lord Mandelson was fairly honest today when he admitted that our region has been "hardest hit by the recession." Such an admission will be of little comfort to the families who are suffering from the increase inunemployment of over 70% in North Durham. It will be of little comfort to the number of people I speak to on the door step who rightly point out that the Government is not doing nearly enough to tackle the recession.
Under this Government, our region has fallen behind other regions in almost every economic measurement. I believe that we have the potential to be economic trailblazers again. We have the potential to have a glorious economic future, using our immense skills, industrial legacy and natural heritage, that will match our glorious economic past. That includes using clean technology and clean coal to put us at the forefront of the green economy. But for us to have the economic future we are capable of, our area needs the vision and leadership that Labour have, time and time again, shown themselves totally incapable of delivering.
I'm tired of the Labour Party taking our region for granted. I'm tired of them using tired platitudes, instead of taking action and showing leadership. It is time that they made way for proud North Easterners, such as me, who are independent of the complacent regional elite and have an ambitious vision for the North East to be the economic envy of the UK.
Wanted: A 'boring' PM
1 year ago
Mandelson will feel fairly immune now that he is a peer, but ought to be as plain as the noses on our faces that Labour has taken it's voters for granted in their heartlands since the end of WWll.
ReplyDeleteNo real pressure on them to change, until some really appealing alternative shows it's face, and that happens only so often. We need a few more years like 1979 to allow people the freedom to make that alternative choice, sure in the knowledge that they are attempting real change.