Brian Monteith: Gravy train has run out of steam

Published on Friday 12 June 2009 10:10

THEY just don't get it, do they? Politicians I mean – not Gordon Brown, not Labour politicians – but the whole motley crew.

Last Friday Labour was given a good skelping by the English and Welsh public in the local elections. Labour does not control a single county council. It doesn't get any worse.

But worse was still to come for at the same time that the whole of the UK was voting (or more accurately, was able to vote) in the European elections, with the count taking place on Sunday.

Now we all know that these particular elections are treated with a special disdain like no other and often result in minority parties doing particularly well at the expense of the government.

The Greens first appeared on the scene in the 80s when they did handsomely at the expense of Thatcher's Tories – but melted away again by the next European elections.

This time it was different. The United Kingdom Independence Party first appeared on the scene in 2004, winning 12 seats. As embarrassments go, Labour falling to third behind UKIP was an utter humiliation. Worse-still, the neo-fascist British National Party won two seats – opening up millions from the European Union's generous coffers to help fund it.

And yet still, Labour MPs are unwilling to change their leader, despite a few brave souls finally speaking out in public and saying the Emperor has no clothes.

The reason for this is simple; they know that if Brown goes now the pressure for any new premier, such as the much-touted Alan Johnson, to go to the country and seek a mandate will be immense.

It was back in 2005 that we elected Tony Blair (remember him) and when Brown took his hot seat he did it, as he's entitled to do, without the moral authority of a general election. For Alan Johnson to pull the same trick too, hanging on grimly to the end, would only strengthen contempt for Labour further and court utter disaster. He would be better going to the country, probably in August, losing, and then spending four years rebuilding his party.

But just as Labour MPs are not concerned with the long-term interests of the nation, neither are they interested in the long-term interests of their party. They appear only being interested in themselves.

They would rather stay in parliament and postpone their inevitable defeat for as long as possible – it could be worth at least ten months' salary and all that we now know goes with it.

Labour is having a ghastly time, but it's not because of the MPs expenses scandal – after all, Tory MPs are up to their necks in it too. No, it's because the party has become so detached from its natural constituency that supporters now feel comfortable in voting – temporarily or even permanently for other parties – and in Scotland that's the SNP.

The expenses scandal is only symptomatic of the current malaise. The willingness of politicians of all parties to believe that public funds are there to splash around in and drench every problem – be it their lifestyle or society's ailments – is the real cancer.

Politicians of all parties refuse to cut their cloth to suit their means. This week the Holyrood finance committee warned that due to the amount of government debt (created at both Westminster and Holyrood) grave financial problems were being stored up that would require tough decisions. And yet still our Scottish Government and the opposition MSPs think that they can come up with more jolly schemes to spend money they don't have.

While every wealth-producing private business is looking at what it can cut back just to break even, government carries on hiring more employees and launching more initiatives, many of them "free".

Public service workers are not bad people; we all need teachers, nurses, police and other such jobs. But ask any of them and they can point to the waste and bureaucracy that is not being addressed as more politically correct positions around them are created. It is this refusal by politicians to accept that the party is over, that the days of spending like there's no tomorrow are finished that shows our MPs and MSPs still don't get it.

The wrong track

I hope someone is writing a book on the great Edinburgh trams saga – we now know that it will be a shocker – the remaining question is just how many volumes it will be?

The latest sad news is how it has hit the business of a Leith launderette so badly the owner is being forced to call it a day, losing thousands of pounds in the process. The owner, George McGill, found nothing funny in the tram's slogan "Taking you to the shops in 2011", remaking that Leith will be turned to a ghost town.

He's right – for the tram project was never about taking people to Leith – it was always about expressing them into the city centre. The cheap words of councillors and tram constructors count for nothing – without adequate compensation to keep local shops viable, as the delays get worse, there will be more people joining Mr McGill.