I`m standing on the record of Tony Blair`s Labour Government. It`s been a cautious record. The aim has been to show that Labour Government works. Yet it`s also been a good one. After four years of good Government everyone in Grimsby is better off.
Unemployment is down. A million new jobs have been created. Far more money has gone into the schools. Class sizes are down in the primary schools. Early years provision is much better. The results are better in all Grimsby`s schools.
Far more for the Health Service, too. At last we`re training more nurses and doctors. The Minimum Wage has improved the lot of over one and a half million people, and the New Deal has helped thousands of young people into work. Working families Tax Credit makes many more people better off, and the pensioners have had their best deal ever.
That`s Labour. Steady improvement. Time now to give Labour the mandate it needs to go forward and on with its work to give Britain, and Grimsby, a better deal.
TOP QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q1 STATE OF THE NHS The NHS is too overstretched to provide the quality medical service people need. The pressure is the result of growing costs of drugs and technology, the ageing population, and the failure to keep spending up to the levels required in 18 Tory years. Coupled, in our case, with isolation and the fact that we`ve not got a university teaching hospital. Turning all this round will be a slow process tackled by (a) Higher Spending. Labour`s given a big boost and is committed to taking spending up to the higher European levels. (b) Train more doctors and nurses and bring more in to fill gaps. (c) Raise standards by working to clinical excellence.
Q2 CRIME. Everyone has lots of ideas. No-one has the answer. I wouldn`t claim to. Tackling the problem means (a) Ending the culture of hopelessness among unemployed young people. The New Deal is going well here. (b) More and more visible Police. (c) Speedier sentencing - we`re well on the way to this. (d) More CCTV. (e) Greater co-operation between Community, Local Government, Voluntary Organisations and the Police. (f) More drug treatment facilities to break the drug habit. Let the Police focus on hard drugs by de-criminalising Cannabis. (g) Expand the Probation Service and improve the arrangements for community supervision of people coming out of prison. (h) Expand and improve alternatives to prison which is becoming a training ground for crime - community service, compulsory training, tagging, anti-social behaviour orders. Labour`s been tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, and it is working.
Q3 JOBS A pressing need in this area. Unemployment is nearly twice the national average. (a) Concentrate on clustering to develop local strengths in food and chemicals and the services, training and support services that go with both. (b) More help for small and medium enterprises and business start-ups. (c) Expand Higher and Further Education. (d) Promote the advantages of the Gateway to Europe, and the Humber Bank`s development potential. (f) Create a high-powered promotion body to promote development with Yorkshire Forward.
Q4 ASYLUM SEEKERS Grimsby is happy to accommodate Asylum Seekers being dispersed from the South East and has already successfully done so. However, it is opposed to the cluster status which gives an Open Sesame to accommodation providers to buy up property, a status on which the Council was neither consulted nor told what the consequences were. Our aim is to get rid of the cluster status and stop the proposal to accommodate 209 Asylum Seekers in Springfield Hall, a most unsuitable location. Dispersal of Asylum Seekers needs to be done with the consent of and in close co-operation with the Local Authority.
Q5 FISHING Seriously damaged by the overfishing and conservation problems produced by the Common Fisheries Policy. Fishing now needs Government support on the same scale as is being given to the Scottish and other European industries for de-commissioning, equipping with new mesh sizes and square mesh panels, tie up during Cod preservation plan periods, and a North Sea regime which makes the fishermen partners in conservation.
As for the compensation for Icelandic trawlermen agreed by the Labour Government after the Tories had refused it for eighteen years, the money must be paid out quicker and top priority now given to Grimsby claims. Get on with it!!
Q6 REGIONAL
GOVERNMENT Yorkshire and Humberside now need an elected regional
government with the same powers as have been given to Scotland. Public
spending per head is over £1000 less here than in Scotland,
though our problems are greater.