The Road Ahead?

Increasing unemployment as Medway Tories obsess over Europe

We all know that the Conservative Coalition policies are not working and because they decided to cut too far and too fast we are now at greater risk now than had the Country taken a different course in May 2010.

In the General Election the Labour Party were absolutely clear that we would not cut as far and as fast until the recovery was in view because of the risk of a double-dip.

You may remember this Labour Party Election Broadcast from May 2010 warning of the Tory path:

We lost the election and Cameron rejected our position.

They took the wrong path and now we are once again staring down the barrel of a gun but with a weak leader and a party which believes that 'unemployment is the price worth paying.'

Dont take my words for it; Cameron's own Conservative colleagues are falling over themselves to distance themselves from the Economic record of the current government

The below is from a Conservative, Patrick Mercer MP according to The People.

GUEST: I enjoyed your kind words. Some people have a gift for that.

MERCER: It’s sort of what I do. I’ve only made three speeches today. The first one in rather faux support for the Home Secretary who I assume will not be the Home Secretary by Friday.If the Prime Minister expresses his utmost confidence in you that means pack your bags. It always has done ­especially with Cameron. What a creature!

GUEST: You don’t rate him?

MERCER: No, I think he’s the worst politician in British history since William Gladstone.

GUEST: What about Gordon Brown?

MERCER: At least Gordon was ­human. Gordon had all sorts of errors, frailties – but at least he was human.

GUEST: Where did David go wrong?

MERCER: Well, he was born.

GUEST: You can’t say things like that.

MERCER: Yeah I can. He’s a most despicable creature without any real redeeming features. If I can think of one ... he’s very rich, how’s that? That’s a redeeming feature.

GUEST: He’s in a terrible situation, the poor guy.

MERCER: And he’s making it worse.

GUEST: Well what are his side going to do about him.

MERCER: We’ll sack him.

GUEST: You reckon?

MERCER: We’ll get rid of him.

GUEST: Well who’s going to take his place.

MERCER: Well if I don’t kill him, then I probably will out of fun – and show the country how really badly it can be run.

I’ve never, ever come across anyone less suited to the job in my life.

I would take a beggar off the streets and put him in that position rather than have Cameron. I loathe him.

What this snippet shows you is that despite all the spin and rubbish peddled by Tory MPs in public they know that they have called the recovery wrong and have a leader who could not even win an absolute majority. He is a dud...

The worry is that this dud cant control his party. We are seeing evidence of similar rebellious actions to Patrick Mercer MP locally.

Both Mark Reckless and Tracey Crouch joined a growing number of rebel Euroloons on the back-benches on the referendum vote only a few weeks ago. They rebelled against the leader of their party and voted against the national interest, in the persuit of an extremist agenda which would have called for a referendum in the middle of the Eurozone crisis, which could have cost this country millions as the markets would have inevitably responded had the motion passed.

They both irresponsibly put the share prices of UK companies, jobs and employment of millions of people at risk and they did it because they saw a political opportunity while the Eurozone struggles to secure itself.

Do you think they acted responsiblity in the interests of the moderate middle?

What is most worrying though; whilst they have been focusing on Europe they have said precious little about the current state of unemployment which blights Medway and beyond.

This week we will likely see an extremely grim milestone, with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) preparing to release the latest unemployment figures which is expected to cross the one million mark.

In Medway youth unemployment is sky high:

Rochester & Strood unemployment: Number of 18-24 yr olds claiming over 6 months up 114% with the total number up from 2,425 to 2,430 from May 10 to Sept 11

Gillingham & Rainham unemployment: Number of 18-24 yr olds claiming over 6 months up 206% with the total number up 4.9% frm 2,358 to 2,473 frm May 10 to Sept 11

Chatham & Aylesford unemployment: Number of 18-24 yr olds claiming over 6 months up by 150% and a total number up 2% frm 2,720 to 2,774 from May 10 to Sept 11

Cameron is taking us in the wrong direction and our rebellious and factional MPs are putting the national interest behind that of a faction within the Conservative Party.

Meanwhile our young people continue to be let down...

There are risky times ahead; but Labour will continue to fight and talk about the issues that matter. Jobs, NHS, schools, police and a sensible relationship with Europe.