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

STATE DEPENDENCY

Maybe its my age (grumpy old man on the horizon), maybe I ve just had a bad run, or maybe I am right: that there is a growing band of people who still, after all the tough medicine of Thatcherism and the tidal wave of consumer-driven “me”-ism, still think that the state owes them a living. I am having to bite my lip more and more often at those who no matter how irresponsibly they have lived come to me to demand that the rest of us bail them out. I m pregnant again, get me a bigger house (partner? don t be daft); I have a twinge in my back, I couldn t possibly work; I’m a budding poet, why should I have to work for my benefits, I need space to create. (No, you just need space.)

When I think of the hard pressed families caring for disabled children 24/7 or those with chronic illness, or those suddenly made redundant or suffering tragedy, and the lack of adequate help they often receive, it makes my blood boil that there is a tiny but growing minority who are perfectly capable of standing on their own two feet, but who choose to come knocking on the door of state provision every five minutes.

The default position for all of us should be: I am responsible. Only if I can’t make it, or hit hard times, should I look to my fellow citizens for support.

I am totally committed to helping those in need and I do not mind paying my taxes for that. But it is assessing the “need” from the “want” that we don’t do very well. I want to know that anybody we help from the benefit system is trying their hardest. If they are, let them be helped and generously. If they are not, well come back when you are.

Above all, we need a system that knows the difference between the two. We don’t have that at the moment and an overhaul is needed.

There has never been so much money showered upon the British people as now. When the next recession hits, as it surely will at some stage, there is going to be a massive squeeze on public expenditure. We need a streamlined system that channels limited resources to those who really deserve it, not those who are having a laugh.

posted by Nigel on Monday, May 21, 2007

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

MEDIA

Do you believe everything you read or hear in the national media? Are you convinced that every story you come across is accurate and without hidden agenda? Or are you getting a bit fed up with reading stories and thinking: what a load of over-hyped garbage.

Put like that, I suspect that many of us agree that in Britain we have a media that is too often over-sensationalist and wildly irresponsible, more so than any other media pack in the world, for reasons I do not understand. We need a free press; many of the citizens of the countries I visit in my democracy-building work would love to have our press, but there must surely be limits to the current free for all.

I exclude the local media from this attack: newspapers like this one which seek to faithfully report on local events and are at the heart of the community.

It is very difficult for any political party to take on the media, as we rely on them so much to get our message across to the electorate. They have the power to destroy, or even worse, to ignore! I cannot see any party at the next election putting in their manifesto: we think the media in this country is out of hand and we are going to legislate to clip its wings! That might not happen, and I say again, we must never try and shackle a free and robust press, part of the checks and balances that keep us free from tyranny.

But there are other ways: a series of small measures that might help. For example, I would like to know when I read a story, whether or not anybody has been paid for spilling the beans to the press. Has the employee/former boyfriend/neighbour etc who blows the whistle been the beneficiary of cheque-book journalism? In this age of transparency and disclosure I see no reason why the reader should not be given that information at the foot of the article. It would help the reader decide what credence to give to the material printed or broadcast. Has an informant been paid, and if so, how much?

On 23rd May I am introducing a bill in the Commons suggesting precisely that. It will not become law; it is just a Parliamentary device for putting down a marker for 10 minutes.

posted by Nigel on Monday, May 21, 2007