Views
Looking at the long term for our future generations - for The Inverness Courier
I HAVE spent most of the past 10 days at home, following the birth of our first child on 6th July. Everyone who told me that fatherhood changes your life was absolutely right.
We are really grateful for all the kind wishes we have received.
But the wonderful experience also reinforced, for me, the need, which I have commented on in this column before, for the political process to deal more effectively with the very long-term challenges that will define the world that our children will grow up in.
It is sadly no coincidence that the biggest issues that this government has failed to deal with, pensions, climate change, declining social mobility, the increasingly unequal housing system, are those where the benefits may not be fully seen for several elections.
But these are also the most important and pressing issues if we want to ensure, as we should, that our children live in a society and on a planet that is in a better state than it is today.
Take climate change for example. If the world does not take serious action soon to tackle the causes of global warming, the impact will become irreversible.
It is undeniable that tackling climate change will mean reforms that many may find unwelcome, such as higher taxation of long-haul air travel.
But as the Stern report pointed out, the economic costs of doing nothing will be far, far higher than the costs of acting now.
We need to make big changes to the tax system as an incentive to good environmental behaviour, and international action to tackle bad environmental behaviour.
Any objective assessment of the Blair/Brown years so far would conclude that very little has actually been done on the environmental front. No doubt the Labour party’s focus groups have found that voters in marginal seats object to the necessary policies.
But in my experience, people prefer politicians who do not shy away from telling the truth about the big issues of the day and are willing to take the necessary action.
The world that future generations will inherit is too important not to.
FIGHTING POVERTY
I have dealt with the cases of many local people who have been penalised by the tax credits system or failed by the incompetence of the child support agency.
Many others have been caught out by Britain’s labyrinthine benefits system, or are simply struggling to improve their position in the face of rising house prices and increasing financial pressures.
These are some of the issues that I will be challenging the government on from my new position as Liberal Democrat shadow secretary of state for work and pensions. Britain has become more unequal over the last 10 years, and the welfare system in this country may lift some out of poverty but it also stifles opportunity.
Most shocking of all, social mobility in Britain is in decline.
A child born into poverty is now more likely to spend their own lives in poverty than their parents and we have the worst record in Europe. That is a dreadful indictment, but it may not be surprising in a country where the poorest 20 per cent pay a greater share of their income in tax than the richest 20 per cent.
But I believe there are things that can be done to tackle these problems, many of which are already being pursued by groups and organisations in our own community.
We know that a great deal of our future is shaped in the earliest years of lives.
Early support for children and parents is absolutely vital, as are experienced professionals to impart that support. We need to fight against plans to gradually phase out health visitors in Scotland — their role is absolutely vital.
We also need to do much more to help people into work. The 2.7 million people on incapacity benefit have been ignored for far too long. Most want to work, and would be able to if the appropriate support was available as the success of the SHIRLIE project has shown.
We need to do much more to harness the commitment and expertise of organisations like that in the voluntary and private sector. And we need to strip the complexity and disincentives out of the benefit system.
There is much that can be done to improve the way we deal with these issues, and I am looking forward to contributing to it over the next few months and years.
Posted on: 17/07/2007
