MPs

Fundamental thinking is needed to avert current challenges

Are we at a tipping point? So many troubles are close at hand: Covid still on our doorstep, hot war in Europe, every business, household and family being hit by energy prices, rising taxes, supply chain shortages and higher costs of imports. It can be difficult to remain positive. On the other hand, is this the moment we should do things differently?

The energy price crisis is making us think hard about driving and heating our homes. It is clear, though, that for those with the fewest resources this has become an existential matter. For Ukrainians the choice is “fight or flight”; for the poorest here the equivalent is “eat or heat”. The spring statement tinkered

Mike Chapman on behalf of Liberal Democrats across the Blackmore Vale

Conservative MP for West Dorset Chris Loder

with the cost-of-living crisis. Smoothing the numbers, playing shops and politics with the various taxes, thresholds, tapers and clawbacks and keeping back a substantial contingency is the modern-day moral equivalent of a combination of “jam tomorrow” and “let them eat cake”. The present challenges are too significant for the marginal changes proposed and warrant more fundamental thinking.

The logic of a windfall tax or a bold cut in VAT remains strong. The former could deliver substantial revenue not subject to the vagaries of future economic performance and which could be used directly to fund a reduction in VAT. This would relieve price pressure across the economy and be felt immediately by everyone. Big companies such as the energy giants invest where they see a good risk/return profile not because they have unexpectedly large surpluses. A windfall tax or the threat of it might even be used to pump prime further renewable energy projects. Whatever happens, the poorest and most vulnerable householders need continuing help now in the face of sky-high energy costs.

The case for a wholesale, properly joined-up review of the Dorset Local Plan is just as strong. There is cogent thinking and wise judgement flowing through the Dorset Deserves Better campaign from Dorset Climate Action Network and Dorset CPRE. Another tipping point in how so such Plans are made?

Dorset must be seriously considered in levelling up allocations

The first tranche of the bus improvement funding has taken place this week, as part of a £7billion package to revitalise and bolster the bus service provision across the UK outside of London. It is highly disappointing that rural Dorset was not included in this first tranche, although Bournemouth and Poole has been included. The rural heart of our region is in urgent need of investment to improve our bus services. The current state of bus service provision here in West Dorset is simply not acceptable. They are a much-needed lifeline for many hundreds, even thousands of people here and I believe the scale of necessity and inadequacy has not been properly considered when assessing which areas should be prioritised for funding.

In my determination to make progress on this issue, I have already requested an urgent meeting with the Buses Minister to address this. ‘Levelling Up’ is a fantastic idea and I wholeheartedly support it in its aims. However, it is my job to make sure that the Government seriously reconsiders these allocational decisions when it comes to rural counties like Dorset. Not just for buses but other provisions too, and I am continuing to lead that discussion for Dorset.

Digital Voice – a programme by BT to replace the copper network for landlines with an internetbased digital service – has been an issue for quite a few people. For many, this presents serious concerns over what to do if there is poor internet or phone signal. I very much welcome the news last week that BT has decided to postpone the Digital Voice scheme for those who do not wish to take part. The cut-off date for replacement of the old copper landline network remains set by Openreach at 2025, but I hope this pause gives our internet and phone providers time to properly address the long-term implications of Digital Voice and the solutions for those living in connectivity ‘not-spots’.

MPs’ round-up

Tories: high tax and low growth

Politics is about choices. In the Spring Statement, the Chancellor chose not to help people across the country with the cost-of-living crisis.

Let’s be very clear – he could have helped a lot more than he did. Inflation is pushing more and more of us into higher tax brackets. The Office of Budget Responsibility calculated that these surging tax receipts give Rishi Sunak at least £15bn more a year annually to play with, after debt servicing costs.

What did he chose do to? Spend £2bn cutting fuel duty. While this is welcome to many in rural Dorset dependent on our cars, it does nothing to help, for example, the millions without cars reliant on Universal Credit or the state pension. He callously left both with a real terms cut of 3%.

Politics with this government is also increasingly about deception. The small change in the earnings point at which we pay National Insurance (NI) from £10,000 to £12,000 is dwarfed by the £12bn a year ‘health and social care’ NI increase he announced just six months earlier. He taketh away with one hand, and then giveth a smaller amount back with the other. For graduates, though, he takes with both, through increasing their student loan repayments as well.

After 12 years of Conservative rule, taxes are now at their highest and disposable income is dropping at its fastest since the Second World War. Every country in the world is struggling with inflation, but the UK is unique in the G7 group of large economies to choose to increase taxes coming out of the pandemic. Plus it’s the country in the G7 with the worst growth rates. The Tories are the party of high tax because they are the party of low growth. They have no answer to the UK’s declining productivity, or the fact that international trade has collapsed by 12%.

We’ve all seen the columns from the local MPs hinting at more help to come in the autumn. That’s no solace to everyone being hit by increases in the cost of food and energy right now. They plan to hoodwink you into voting for them again with a tax cut before the next election. That’s the most cynical choice of all. When that election comes and you chose how to vote, just remember how this government chose to leave us all struggling.

Greg Williams, on behalf of Dorset Labour

Putin must be on the back foot

Covid appears to be taking another sweep through the population - including through me! The last few days haven’t been great but I’m grateful for my triple jabs, without which I suspect the experience would be very much worse.

I’ve had a good response to my delayed hospital discharges bill introduced a few days ago. It would tackle the long delays faced by predominantly elderly people in getting out of acute hospitals and into more homely settings in the community – such as home, nursing homes or community hospitals.

Twenty years ago I attempted something similar and the then-government did indeed bring forward a

Conservative MP for South West Wiltshire Dr Andrew Murrison

similar measure the following year. It had some effect, but was overtaken by subsequent legislation.

My interest originally stemmed from support for community hospitals – my first experience of healthcare was as a porter in a cottage hospital while I was still at school and contemplating medical school – such as the two excellent examples in Warminster and Shaftesbury, which I have been delighted to support over the years.

More recently, the passing of my mother-in-law in one of our major hospitals when she would have better been cared for in a homely setting in the community prompted me to look at delayed discharges again.

Putin’s outrages continue unabated. Meanwhile, people locally are opening their arms to refugees displaced by that monster’s predations. As I write, it seems to me that Putin has boxed himself in. Clearly his advisers told him what he wanted to hear about the warm welcome anticipated from supposedly oppressed Ukrainians. Their resistance and resilience is truly inspirational – what strategists call the moral component in action.

What’s more, Putin’s disastrous campaign against a much smaller army has exposed profound military weaknesses. Bloodied and bowed, the Russian armed forces no longer seem impregnable. Adversaries abroad and within the Russian federation will be taking note. Putin’s misstep will have big geopolitical consequences and none of them are looking good for him.

But a cornered animal is dangerous. Expect worse to come.