Politics

Striking conversations at the big show

By some miracle the G & S Show stayed dry. It turned out terrific. We stood outside our tent and talked and listened all day.

Early on, a former magistrate stopped by and proceeded to dismiss the present cost-ofliving concerns as a problem of welfare-dependent ‘feckless poor’.

David Cameron was the last one to use that term as he launched into the welfare reforms which have given us Universal Credit, designed to drive out that dependency. I am sure many have a view on this…

Then, there was the guy who cheerily engaged me with: “I don’t pay any tax. Anyone who does is a mug. Look after number one, that is my advice to you lot.”

I did ask for his contact details but the look of derision on his face warned me off a

Mike Chapman on behalf of Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale

second request. The team on the stand wondered if he was for real and decided he was. Wow! Worth reflecting before you applaud, that the sizeable, tax-free black and purple economies doubles up the burden on the rest of us.

Nonetheless, there were many positive and constructive conversations throughout the day about action to support farming, climate change and about the cost-of-living crisis.

As always, it was so cheering to hear from younger people about their personal commitment to carbon reduction.

One of the last conversations of the day shook me. I have had to digest it and reflect on it in the days since the Show.

This, I was told, is the Subscription Generation writ large. Concerns about affordable housing, the well-being of isolated rural communities, the lack of public transport, the slow provision of decent broadband and so on are for the birds.

“Look to the future, not back at old models,” I was told. “If I want something, I dial it up – accommodation, transport, food, IT, household, whatever. I don’t need to own it, I just want to use it. In ten years, we will have stopped worrying about ownership and be in a faster moving, more sorted world. Invest in tomorrow, stop trying to fix the past.”

There is no doubt this is our direction of travel and it could well be the mindset which will accelerate green solutions as we share more resources. But, are we ready for the absolutist message, the emphasis on consumerist supremacy?

I worry the consumer society lacks morals and restraint. I don’t think it listens. We shall carry on doing precisely that but with an eye on technology and an ear to all the other challenges.

Large role for nuclear in energy mix

I’ve been struck by the number of articles and letters on UK energy policy in recent local publications. I try to avoid returning to the same topic on consecutive fortnights but feel it’s warranted given the current energy crisis.

With nuclear, it’s easy to criticise the huge sums involved in the construction and decommissioning of reactors. The fact is, though, we’d be far less worried about keeping the lights on this winter if we had France’s fleet of nuclear power plants. What matters is the cost per megawatt hour and we would all be delighted if Hinkley Point C were generating at £106/MWh right now! So, like most pragmatists, I believe there’s a large role for nuclear in this country’s future.

The non-fossil fuel alternative to new nuclear is a lot more of all types of renewables coupled with battery storage on a scale that’s difficult to comprehend. This route is not without its moral dilemmas. Consider, for example, all the rare minerals needed for batteries which come from African and Asian countries with poor labour practices and environmental protections. And despite the waste from spent batteries not being as dangerous as that of nuclear, it’s still hazardous.

While offshore wind has taken off, unresolved connection issues remain. Our grid would be more resilient if we had more renewables closer to centres of consumption. So, like many, I’m really disappointed both Tory leadership candidates have committed to continue to block onshore wind.

A lot has been written about the need to decouple the wholesale electricity price from the cost of gas and instead peg it to the cost of generation. You can do this for yourself today with domestic solar. But a farmer can’t put up a wind turbine or install a solar array. It’s crazy to me that communities are prevented from achieving energy independence in their own backyards.

While domestic energy consumers have rightly been the political focus, businesses need support, too. They don’t have the benefit of price caps. Labour has already called for business rate relief to be increased to £17,000 rateable value, and a £1bn fund to help energy-intensive industries this winter. While this is welcome, it should be accompanied by regulatory changes to prevent all the burden falling on the taxpayer.

For example, there’s no obligation on energy suppliers to provide businesses with a quote. Companies large and small can end up getting transitioned on to ‘default’ rates when their fixed contract expires, or ‘deemed’ rates when they take on a new property. Whereas the domestic price cap is currently about 28p/kWh, some deemed rates are hitting £1/kWh. There’s no justification for this. I’m arguing that businesses should benefit from protection similar to the current iteration of the domestic price cap, where energy supplier profits are limited to 1.9 per cent.

Greg Williams on behalf of Dorset Labour

Time to cut red tape for farmers

Last week, it was a pleasure to have been at the Melplash Show in Bridport, the first in three years.

And while I have always enjoyed attending year after year, this was my first such show since I was elected MP.

I hosted a drop-in surgery and spoke to many local people who stopped by for a chat, asked for help or who simply wanted to know more about the work I do on their behalf in Westminster.

This year felt very special, not just because this was the first show since the Coronavirus pandemic began, but because now more than ever we are appreciating the importance of good, local produce.

On display at Melplash last Thursday were some of West Dorset’s finest livestock, shown by some of our most passionate and dedicated local farmers.

One of the key messages I took back from this through local farmers was the need to support small rural businesses and cutting back the red tape within agriculture – a task for which I have lobbied rigorously in Westminster.

Those in West Dorset producing food do so because they are passionate and take great pride in their products.

When a new ministry forms next week, I expect the policies emerging to enhance British agriculture’s reputation as the gold standard throughout the world, while also freeing hard-working farmers from the tremendous burden of red tape that has for too long bogged down productivity and dampened people’s passion for the job.

That previous Sunday, it was great to have joined the front of the Bridport Torchlight procession alongside the Mayor and town crier.

The Bridport Torchlight has become an integral part of Bridport’s Carnival weekend. It raises much-needed funds for the carnival and the local community and is one of the highlights of West Dorset’s social calendar.

It was therefore a shock to have learnt late last year that this procession was at risk of being cancelled due to a highways contractor refusing to continue its assistance in operating the closure of the A35 Crown Roundabout.

After two years of postponement due to the coronavirus pandemic, another cancellation was simply not acceptable in my view, and so I was determined to do all I could to sort this out.

I therefore held a virtual summit with Dorset and Bridport Town Council, Bridport Carnival Committee and National Highways in order to formulate a solid plan of action.

I was very pleased to have helped ensure this event could continue this year, and indeed to take part in it.

As always, please feel free to contact me via hello@ chrisloder.co.uk if there are ever any matters I can help you with.

Conservative MP for West Dorset Chris Loder

Bridport Torchlight has become an integral part of Bridport’s Carnival weekend and is one of the highlights of West Dorset’s social calendar.

Cost of living must be top priority

Congratulations to all of those who have received exam results recently.

I hope they were what you wanted and needed. If not, please remember there are no cul-de-sacs in education, only finding different routes.

For those starting or returning to school I wish you a happy term. Again, I thank all our teachers and school support staff who make it all happen.

Now for the politics. These last several weeks we have had a caretaker government – awaiting a new PM, unable to make any major decisions or commitments to bind its successor.

With all that is going on with the cost-of-living crisis, energy prices spiralling and inflation rampant, this could not have come at a worse time.

All I want you to know is that I’m more than aware of the fear, pressures and strains they are causing to people across north Dorset.

Like you, I wait to see what the new PM and Government do to provide comfort and help.

I will do all I can to push, press and demand supports.

If this is not THE top priority for the Government from day one, then it will be in very choppy water with the country – and rightly so.

Small government? Big bills!

The ideology that says Government is best when it is ‘light touch’, with minimal bureaucracy, may initially seem appealing.

It certainly makes for simpler government, with a reduced role for the state, reduced public sector borrowing and reduced taxation. But it has a fatal flaw – human greed for money.

The claim is that when business is freed from the restrictions of ‘red tape’ it can get on with supplying the market with what people need.

Bad businesses will fail and only good businesses will succeed.

Sadly, history has shown that it doesn’t work that way, and for proof we need look no further than the present plundered and polluted state of our planet.

An example currently hitting the headlines is the water industry in England, overseen by the Government regulator Ofwat and the Environment Agency, both said to be poorly resourced – there’s that ‘light touch’ for you.

The industry was privatised in 1989 by a Tory government, under the pretext that the private sector would inject the cash needed to upgrade old Victorian sewers and fix leaky mains water pipes.

That went well, didn’t it !

In fact, the privatisation of the English regional water boards is an abject lesson in how private corporations cannot be trusted to do what is best, because for them doing ‘best’ is measured by how much money they can extract from the business to pay their senior managers and shareholders regardless of the consequences for other people and the planet.

I know that statement will provoke much spluttering from avid supporters of privatisation, but the facts rather speak for themselves.

To enable the water boards to be privatised the Tory government wiped out their debts to the tune of £5bn, sold the businesses at a 22 per cent discount, gave the private companies a cash injection of £1.6bn plus a 25-year monopoly in their respective regions so they didn’t have to compete – subsequently effectively extended indefinitely by the New Labour government in 2002 – and finally special exemption from paying profits tax and an extremely generous price regime so that profits rose by 147 per cent in the first seven years while sewerage and water prices rose by 42 per cent and 36 per cent respectively.

And what did the private companies do with their businesses?

A 2020 report found they had loaded them up with £48bn of debt which effectively went to fund dividends of £57bn.

Customers’ water bills meantime increased 40 per cent above the rate of inflation.

In 2021 water company executives received an average of £100,000 bonus on top of their salaries, during a period in which foul water was discharged for 2.7 million hours into our rivers and seaside.

Little wonder that the Green Party is calling for the water companies to be brought back into public ownership, along with the big five energy suppliers.

Ken Huggins on behalf of the Green Party in North Dorset

Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire Dr Andrew Murrison

Help should target most in need

By the time this is printed all votes in my party’s leadership race will have been cast. Hurrah!

Of course, whoever wins is likely to be content with a process that has delivered victory which means change is unlikely.

However, several people have said over the past few days how cross they are at the drawn-out nature of the election and the unflattering impression given of governmental drift during the interregnum.

I think a lengthy campaign for leadership is fine, even desirable, when a party is in opposition, but I do think we need to have a conversation about abbreviating it for a party that’s actually in government for obvious reasons.

It has been suggested that the matter should be dealt with under those circumstances by the party’s MPs alone. I’m sympathetic to that view.

The immediate issue is how best to mitigate the energy crisis, inflation and the cost of living.

My strong preference is for targeted help for those who need it most.

That could be benefit payments, VAT cuts – since they benefit the least well off the most – or action on income tax bands that will help low-pay households.

General relief however delivered makes less sense because it’s simply giving with one hand and taking with the other – through taxes – shifting more of the public into State dependency. I’m uneasy with that.

I am not keen on Corporation Tax cuts which chiefly benefit big businesses. In my view the evidence for them increasing returns to the Treasury isn’t great and my view seems to be held by most economists.

If you want to go for growth, heading off stagflation, you would be better helping small businesses, indirectly probably, with energy costs – they’re about to sound the death knell for many in our area.

I’ve been an active Rishi supporter throughout. He’s a great guy and I so very much hope he wins. However, whoever gets the keys to Number Ten can rely on two things from me – my deepest sympathy and my full support. Good luck!