Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

BADGERS

It should never be forgotten that this is constituency is partly rural with over 160 farms in it. I grew up on a dairy farm and the countryside is definitely in the blood.

So I have been exercised in recent years about the state of agriculture. It has been through a really tough time, with prices for milk and meat products at rock bottom. Many farmers have gone bust and there is no immediate prospect of an upturn in fortunes. But practical solutions are hard to find. Maybe supermarkets are passing on a pittance of the price of milk to the producer, but in a free market economy it is hard for a government to intervene.

But where we can help these custodians of the countryside, we should. One of the massive challenges facing farmers is the prospect of bovine TB. I well remember the anxiety in my father’s face during the visit from the ministry vet to test for TB. One reactor and your livelihood could be over. Everything you have built for years, gone in a flash.

The UK badger population was reckoned to be about 90,000 in the early 1970’s and now over 500,000. The main reason for this dramatic growth is that Parliament made them a protected species in the seventies in an attempt to stamp out badger baiting. Quite right too, but with what unforeseen consequences?

Are badgers the cause of bovine TB? The evidence is pretty clear about that. Certainly there was a time when the UK herd was TB free and the new spate of infection has come from somewhere. But if we embark on a massive cull will it solve the problem? The rather unsatisfactory trials we have had in recent years have been inconclusive, in part because they have not been strict enough. Can you imagine the demonstrations if the government were to order a country wide cull of this much loved character from the Wind in the Willows?

I believe that there is a solution. We should simply remove the legal protection. Badger baiting would still be prevented by recent legislation, and farmers facing a diseased set would have the freedom to sort it out in time honoured fashion, restoring balance to the countryside. Where there is no threat, badgers would be left alone. Where there is a problem, their numbers would be reduced.

Even this would be controversial, but since when was government about handing out sweeties?

posted by Nigel on Sunday, March 12, 2006

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

A MAYOR FOR PLYMOUTH

A well-known think-tank published a report last week suggesting that directly elected mayors with full executive powers should run all of the major cities in the UK.

This is not party policy, and I may get in trouble for saying so, but I totally agree, and have thought so for some time. Not the absurd recipe for confusion we have at the moment in London and Torbay and other places, where the elected mayor has very limited powers and spends most of his life locked in hand to hand fighting with the elected councillors. No, I mean the full-blown American and French style I’m-in-charge-and-don’t-you-forget-it-style leadership.
(Incidentally, I’m no lover of Ken Livingstone, but I think the decision by the local government watchdog to suspend him for 4 weeks because he made an unfortunate remark is outrageous).

What are the advantages of directly elected mayors? First of all clear leadership and accountability. You elect a person to do a job for 4 years; everybody knows whose in charge, the buck clearly stops on his or her desk and if they don’t do a good job, there is no-one else to blame and the electorate can choose another. Everybody would know who was ultimately in charge of schools, regeneration, planning and all city services, obviously working through and overseeing the sector heads of each department. Candidates standing for election would set out their stall, the people would decide and they could be held to account.

Second, it is a very good way of attracting into public life high quality people who would be very good at running something but not the least bit interested in party politics. The leadership of a city like Plymouth could be carried out after a successful career in business, or the public or voluntary sector; in short the right person from whatever background.

Why just cities? A city is a readily identifiable area with a clear sense of coherence, capable of being run as a single entity. It is not possible to say that about some of our more rural areas. To qualify, it would have to be of a certain size, maybe at least 200,000 people, big enough to run all the main services.

The thought of yet another review of local government horrifies me, but introducing directly elected mayors in all major UK cities seems to me to a reform that could have long-term benefits for the British people.

posted by Nigel on Saturday, March 11, 2006

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

SMALL BUSINESS

We have got the builders in at the moment making some minor adjustments to the inside of our house, coinciding with me being here all week for half term. I say the builders, but in fact it is a loose confederation of different self-employed people: plumbers, electricians, kitchen fitters and the like, all brought together in a rather elastic way. As usual, they are all doing several jobs in different locations at the same time. The favourite thing is to just pop out for a few bits at 11 am and you never see them again that day, leaving dust and chaos everywhere. But also as usual, they all want to talk politics and are quick to tell me what we are doing wrong at Westminster. It comes with the territory.

They want government to get off their backs and remove some of the absurd burdens of red tape that stifle enterprise. The plumber is obviously far too busy; his phone goes constantly – other customers shouting various versions of where are you? I suggest that he should employ an assistant or two and expand his business. His face contorts into a snarl; he did try it once, but he simply cannot cope with all of the bureaucracy that comes with employing somebody these days. Expletives deleted.

This is madness, but it is a message I receive from business people all over the constituency. The list of compliance regulation is long and growing: from complex VAT returns, statutory sick pay provisions, Health and Safety regulations, all the way through to burdensome contractual and legal requirements including our new friend paternity leave. Throw in a few Child Benefit Agency deductions, new Inland Revenue rules on self-employment, sprinkle on new vetting procedures and it all adds up to a cocktail of complexity that suffocates the entrepreneur. There are 3 million small businesses in this country, and they are the true lifeblood of our economy. We strangle them at out peril.

Most of these provisions are well intended and noble in their own right. We should pay people when they are sick. We don’t want cowboy builders or small boys up chimneys. But you can have too much of a good thing.

If we want the self-employed sector to thrive, we have to reduce the level of red tape and set them free again. We want them to employ young people and train them for the future.
Anyone seen my plumber?

posted by Nigel on Saturday, March 11, 2006