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Mike Weatherley’s diet for big fat Government

 With the civil service now the size of Sheffield, with the Department for Work and Pensions employing more people than there are soldiers in the British Army, it is time for this fat Government to go on a diet.  Mike Weatherley, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion gives his prescription to slim down the Government.  Mike said:

 “When 88,000 extra people are employed in education but only 14,000 are teacher; When the number of NHS managers is increasing three times faster than the number of new doctors and nurses; the alarm bells start to ring.  Except of course you are Gordon Brown.  After seven years of promising to cut back government, there is no reason and no evidence for why we should believe the Chancellor now.  His strategy to achieve efficiency is empty rhetoric, catchphrases and meaningless waffle, because Gordon Brown is addicted to commanding and controlling the way services are run.  What his Spending Review really means is:

__ More bureaucracy (seven new agencies);

__ More targets (110, “to increase focus on the government’s priorities”, according to page 1 of the 2004 Spending Review PSAs);

__ More task-forces;

__ More centralisation;

__ More regulation;

__ More borrowing; and

__ More taxes (Brown’s spending plans mean third term tax rises if Labour win the next election).”

Conservative’s have set out their plans to cut £1 billion that is wasted by local authorities on red tape.  Mike Weatherley explains:

 “Best Value and Comprehensive Performance Assessment regimes are costing town hall chiefs £1 billion a year.  I am delighted that under the next Conservative Government these expensive, interfering, time consuming burdens will be abolished.  The Conservative approach is very simple.  Local Authorities should have the power they need to do the job.  The next Conservative government will cut back the financial, administrative and auditing regulation that today weighs down local government. We will increase significantly the discretion of local councils to spend the money they receive by way of grant. We will allow councils greater freedom to set their own priorities.”

 Mike concludes:

“The Conservative way is the only way to a slim fit Government

•  We will cut bureaucracy.

•  We will cut inefficiency.

•  We will cut the quangos, cut the regulations, cut the armies of interferers that do nothing good for the people of this country.

•  We will cut borrowing.

•  We will cut crime.

•  We will cut Labour's fat government down to size.”

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