On Saturday I was in Beckenham first thing in the morning. After breakfast with Robert Straker at the Moonlight Café (see photograph) we drove to Hayes. There we joined the Hayes Conservative Party Street Stall which was run by Peter Harrold, Patricia Grimaldi-Harrold, Graham & Eithne Arthur, Anne Manning, Peter Fortune, Diane Smith, Ruth Bennett and Tony Power. I am very grateful for all the support they give me. In the afternoon I visited a Second World War infantry officer – a good friend since I have lived in Beckenham. His wife has been admitted to the PRUH. I think and hope she will be home soon.
I was very pleased that we had such positive support campaigning along Station Approach yesterday. However almost everyone to whom we spoke mentioned that they were really worried about the possibility of a hung parliament, especially one where the Scottish Nationalist Party might hold a whip hand. A combination of Labour and SNP running the country even though we Conservatives have more seats than any other party is a nightmare scenario. Opinion polls suggest this as a distinct possibility. I am very worried about it too. I hope everyone voting on 7th May keeps this very much in mind. It is the nightmare scenario as far as I am concerned.
The economy is recovering under us and we have now created 2 million new jobs since 2010. What more can we do to prove ourselves? How can the party which almost bankrupted the country be level-pegging with the Conservatives who always, always, have to come into office after Labour to sort out our national accounts?
Ed Balls may try to pass off the note left by Liam Byrne at the Treasury in 2010 saying ‘There’s no money left’ left as a joke but it was also the terrible truth. Labour governments ruin our country’s finances by simply throwing money around as though that alone is the solution. It is not. The fact is that Labour spends it and Conservatives have to recover it. It has always been thus.
In their broadcasts, statements, interviews, newsletters and the like Labour and other parties are trumpeting that so-called ‘austerity’ cannot go on – as though our huge debt of £150 trillion ( people stay off this one) and our deficit (which we have halved) can be ignored or shuffled away for future generations to pay off. How utterly irresponsible is that? I simply don’t understand why the general public doesn’t recognise this fact!
The Conservatives are the only political party with any financial acumen. I don’t want our children and all future citizens to be encumbered by the strait jacket of huge debt. They will really pay for us unless we get it sorted. In truth the Conservatives are the only political party that is trying (and succeeding slowly) to sort out the national budget mess. I simply cannot understand why so many people still don’t accept this.