By Cllr Rachel Burgess
It seems like every day a news item reminds us how much damage the Conservatives have done.
Just this week we have had high-risk offenders included in an early prison release scheme because prisons were too overcrowded; £251m being clawed back from unpaid carers largely due to government failures; fears of a new Windrush scandal as thousands of people, some who have been here for decades, face a ‘cliff edge’ visa change; and contaminated water in Brixham causing many people to become seriously ill.
How many times have you heard people say recently – nothing works in this country anymore?
But on Rishi Sunak continues, desperately pleading for voters to stick with him, promising better education, better transport, better everything, all the while inadvertently giving us a list of areas where the Tories have failed.
If they run out of these meaningless platitudes they turn in desperation to culture wars, stirring up stories as a distraction from the real issues – this week’s non-story was about sex education in primary schools.
This feeling of gradual decline is of course echoed on the doorstep. Residents we speak to know that we are all paying more, for less.
Taxes are at the highest level for 70 years.
Mortgage rates and rents are up.
Bills have increased massively and wages are not keeping up.
Public services are on their knees.
Last week’s Wokingham Today reported a 119% increase in foodbank use here in Wokingham Borough in the last five years, and foodbanks are fast becoming a normal part of our community. As Gordon Brown pointed out last week, it is devastating to think that millions of children born since 2010 have only known poverty.
I know that the Labour group of councillors in Wokingham Borough, which now numbers eight after the recent local elections, worked extremely hard to get elected. I know they will continue that work now they have been elected. I am proud to lead them and I know they will do the very best for residents.
But the pressure on Council finances due to the last 14 years of Tory austerity is so extreme that this becomes harder and harder every year.
Here in Wokingham Borough, the Council is consulting on the Community Vision. The draft document contains nothing that most people would disagree with. Who would argue that we don’t want to protect green spaces or take pride in our area or foster a community spirit?
But without proper government funding to back this vision there can be no meaningful action – and indeed the vision contains very little that is measurable, or specific targets for positive change.
With the list of bankrupt Councils getting longer, and public services so massively underfunded for years, it is a struggle for the Council to even provide the basics.
After austerity, Brexit, the pandemic, the Ukraine war, the disastrous Tory ‘mini-budget’ and the ensuing cost of living crisis it will take a long time to make things better. Starting to clean up the mess can only be done with a Labour government in the driving seat. Instead of endless volatility, we need stability, in the country and in the economy, so we can start to mend everything that the Tories have broken. To reverse the devasting increase in NHS waiting lists.
To crack down on antisocial behaviour which makes a misery of people’s lives in the Borough and across the country. To end the recruitment crisis in our schools.
The list goes on.
In time, I look forward to a more positive, hopeful mood from voters on the doorstep. They may believe that ‘everything is broken these days’ – but many also share my hope and belief that a new Labour government, supported by hard-working Labour Members of Parliament and councillors, can begin to fix it.
Cllr Rachel Burgess is the leader of the Labour Group on Wokingham Borough Council, and ward member for Norreys
