Happy New Year

Happy New Year from Coleridge Conservatives!

David Cameron's new year message set the tone for 2011 - tough times and the government focusing on "enterprise, aspiration, public service reform and national security".

I agree with the Prime Minister that if the government holds its nerve on getting the public finances in shape, reforming our often counter-productive welfare state and creating an environment for enterprise - in business and in the big society - that the country will be on track for a happier future.

Guido Fawkes' quote of the day today from Matthew Parris (presumably from behind The Times' paywall) sums up brilliantly the political battle facing the government's supporters:

“People will embrace retrenchment in principle then lament any cut affecting them. Shrouds will be waved, illiteracy and infant malnutrition predicted, and in the opposition imagination old people will be starving or freezing to death in countless wretched hovels. The demise of theatre, ballet, museums and day care centres, the fine arts, mountain rescue and the Battersea Dogs Home will be pronounced imminent. Charities, think-tanks and academics will write to The Times to call ministers deaf to reason. Long-term savings will be claimed to be achievable only by maintaining current spending. The whole lexicon of short-termism, scorched earth, vandalism and philistinism will be ransacked. Howls of indignation from co-ordinated bands of identifiable losers will drown out quiet murmurs of approval among the ungalvanised majority.”

We have seen this consistently since the election: scaremongering, misleading figures, exaggerations and special pleading aplenty. That's not to say that there is never a good point behind many claims, and that no mistakes will be made, but no-one should be surprised when vested interests whip up a fuss over everything, often without revealing their interest.

Of course it is quite right that local representatives should try to get the best for our area - that is their job - but it doesn't help to make ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims such as Labour's that the housing benefit cap would be lead to an exodus from Cambridge.

I suspect we won't have a boring year...