Last week's Conservative's performance at Eastleigh should send alarm bells ringing through Tory head office.
To come third in a constituency which they stood a chance of winning, and bearing in mind that 17 per cent less of the electorate bothered to vote as against the General Election of 2010, should cause the party to realise that they have got their policies wrong.
It is not only the matter of the Nation’s debt mountain, but the attitude towards the taxpaying voter. By way of illustration, Government is now freely admitting that the cost of the West Coast Rail Franchise fiasco is now at least £50m and mounting.
Yet this is hard-working taxpayer’s money that has been incompetently managed. What irks so many of the electorate is that nobody has lost their job over the matter.
Oh yes, two or three officials were suspended, but soon reinstated when they took legal action against the Department of Transport. No Government Minister has resigned, nor have I heard of any performance bonuses of all those concerned being withdrawn, or repayment requested.
I do not wish to be vindictive, but in the real world of business, action would have been taken very quickly, with heads rolling, and new, more experience staff being appointed to get to grips with the problem.
The trouble is that this is just one instance of Government incompetence, there are others. Two aircraft carriers are on the stocks, yet up till now, no planes have been purchased to fly from them. So presumably these white elephants will sit around as dead money for as much as ten years. Not a very clever use of taxpayers’ hard earned.
Yes, this nation has a debt mountain, which must be paid off, and, yes, everybody is suffering as a result, the poor more than most in percentage terms of disposable income. So it is not very clever of Government to continue to demonstrate a lack of control over its departments, yet expect the electorate to give them support.
On March 20, Chancellor George Osborne, in his Budget, must provide the incentives to get the nation back to work. In addition, he must give assurances that taxpayers’ money will be properly managed by competent persons, and that those now in post that bear the responsibilities for waste, will be removed or transferred elsewhere.
Otherwise, the Tories could spend a long time out of Government.
* Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm AE Harris
