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New Blackmore Vale, 10 June 2022
blackmorevale.net
Politics
So many of Government’s 2019 election promises were illusions Roundabouts, dodgems, ghost trains, skyrides, all sorts of swings, a conjuror and an escapologist – all the fun of the fair? No, the last fortnight in politics! Roundabout ways of approaching the ministerial code of conduct; parties to which no-one owned up giving us those fine dodgems; there is every sign of a nationwide rail strike and no chance of taking a sky ride to anywhere nice anytime soon. Unless, of course, you are a migrant, in which case Rwanda awaits you whether or not you have been able to get a passport. What about the swings, you ask? We will see them in action shortly in the byelections that surround us here in the Vale. They were last seen in the local elections in early May. What of the illusionists, the Great Escapologist and his pal the Conjuror, who takes your money and only gives you some of it back? I am sorry, I haven’t the energy to pursue the analogy any further. So many of the promises which saw this Government romp home in such style at the end of 2019 were illusions. Leaving the EU, it turns out, according to the new department in charge, has given us the liberty to have more powerful vacuum cleaners, bring on fracking, diminish workplace liberties and conditions, de-regulate white van man and reduce the need for PAT testing. Oh, and the potential to bring back £ s d, lbs and oz
Allotments could be an asset in a ‘greener’ future.
Mike Chapman on behalf of Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale and the rest of the avoirdupois of antiquity. Is all this worth the reduction in GDP of about £80-100bn which Brexit has occasioned? Government should govern in the best, forwardlooking interests of the nation with fairness and providing opportunity, but also with integrity and honesty. That is not such a big ask, is it? Today, however, I perceive those at the top of Government operating in the best interests of their own class – in every sense – and their careers and memoirs. Locally, though, there are
some great positives, born small but capable of scaling up. For example, a North Dorset flour mill is now generating power as well as flour from its waterwheel. The huge shift in energy prices lends a tremendous opportunity to this and other such micro-schemes to tap into the latent power of our rivers, to say nothing of the macro-project potential of tidal rise and fall. We should see strong investment incentives being brought to bear here just as in other sensible, local and domestic-level forms of renewable energy such as solar thermal and solar electricity storage systems which currently fall foul of VAT disincentives. There are myriad schemes to move supermarket surpluses into food banks and community fridges. North Dorset is doing well on this score but there is so much more which could be done to eliminate food wastage. We could avoid some of the cost, complexity and carbon footprint of food and produce supply chains by turning on the capabilities available in our gardens and
allotments. Yes, less choice and more seasonality, but improved food security and community well-being. There are messages for our Planners, too. It is not rocket science to ask for allotments, for renewable energy systems, for electric charging, for higher standards of insulation, as well as more sustainable, more integrated community planning, including services and employment. In the long run, we cannot afford not to do these things, just as we cannot afford central government handouts on the present scale ad infinitum. Let us invest in what is needed and tax it less and tax more what is merely desirable. Let us recognise, too, that there are limits to deregulation. There are absolute barriers to ever-extending choice and economic free-wheeling. There is, in the words of the originators of Doughnut Economics – worth a look anytime – a ‘safe and just space’ in which human endeavour should take place. None of this constitutes intervention. The goal is intelligent design as opposed to muddling through in the hope the worst doesn’t happen. The present political set-up results in the seesawing, push-me/pull-you of party-driven policy which we have seen for 50 years or more. There must be something better. Change cannot come, though, without clarity, honesty and integrity.
