Views
Time for reflection on a hectic period
LAST week, the House of Commons started its summer recess. The new government has shortened the summer break to six weeks so that MPs can return to Westminster in September to press on with our legislative programme.
I am looking forward to my round of summer surgeries in all the communities, large and small, across Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey. As in previous years, these will be well advertised in the local press and communities noticeboards. I would be delighted to see anyone who has a point to raise, and will do my very best to help where that is needed.
We will, of course, be getting a holiday as a family too. The year so far has been non-stop - with an election campaign, writing the party manifesto, and then negotiating the coalition deal and joining the new government - so I will certainly welcome a little rest and time with the family. It is a good time to reflect on what has happened, and what the rest of the year will hold too.
From the comments and questions I have had from local people over the last couple of months - and at the Nairn Show on Saturday - a few general themes emerge. Most people seem to genuinely welcome the new kind of politics that the coalition government offers and agree that very difficult decisions have to be made on the economy. But there are understandable concerns about the implications of those decisions.
My Treasury workload will continue unabated in the shortened summer recess with many more important and difficult decisions to be taken in the Autumn Spending Review - a process which Labour cynically delayed when the election loomed and which I am responsible for carrying through. We want to re-establish lasting economic growth and prosperity, but that cannot be done until the poisonous legacy that Labour left the country has been dealt with. With one pound out of every four that the country spends having to be borrowed, we must get spending under control if the country is to live within its means. The one party that made the mess is in denial about the consequences: two other parties have come together to clean it up.
People in the Highlands are already well aware of the sort of difficult choices that need to be made, thanks to the excellent consultation process that Highland Council has been running on its own spending cuts. Like the council, central government is consulting widely regarding the choices we need to make.
I have held several expert seminars in the Treasury and attended a fascinating event in Coventry at which a randomly selected group spent four days debating the choices we face. The websites seeking ideas from public sector workers and ordinary people have received about 100,000 ideas for where savings can be made, some of which will make it into the our final decisions.
We will work hard to ensure that the impact on the most important services that people, especially the most vulnerable, rely on are minimised. This will require some hard thinking about how to do things differently - how to reform services so that we can get more for less.
For example, the welfare system is ripe for reform - it is hugely complex, does not encourage people to work, and as a result the costs have ballooned in recent years. By helping those who can work to do so and removing unfairnesses and incentives not to work, we can do the right thing and reduce costs in the future.
It is clear to me that over-centralisation of government makes public services less efficient and frustrates people. The man in Whitehall - or in Holyrood - does not know best what works in the Highlands. Indeed, the trend to centralising power has been even more pronounced in Scotland over the last three years, doing much damage locally. I hope this will be a big area of debate at the Scottish Parliament elections next year because it is critical to saving money in the right way.
Posted on: 03/08/2010
