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Friday 10 February 2012

A picture of Middle England

I decided to do a survey. It wouldn`t pass muster among the professionals of course and I didn`t go out into the street with a clipboard and accost passers-by, I just asked the next eight people I met locally. But it was an interestingly random selection, if you discount the fact that they all live in a village in Middle England. Three of them are retired - two comfortably so, one with an inadequate pension. One is a young mother of two whose husband works for a local builder. They live in a council house on the edge of the village, as does the next person, a hard-up single mother of two adolescent boys. The next interviewee is a local small farmer, the last a widow who sits on the council.

And I asked them the following. What do you want/need from your government, regardless of political complexion, in return for the taxes you pay and what do you not need or want. Where do you think the most money is wasted by both local and national governments ?

I was not surprised by the replies. Nor will you be and I bet everyone could go out and ask the questions of half a dozen people and they would come up with the same answers – yet no politician takes any notice whatsoever, they just go on sending our money in their own sweet way.

Top of everyone’s list was a universally good health service at every level from GP to consultant to clinic to hospital – and because we have several extremely good cottage hospitals within a 20 mile radius of my village, everyone wanted those retained and quite right too. They do not only provide small in patient wards, they provide screening services, radio and physiotherapy and appointments with visiting consultant. They also have minor injuries units. But people wanted better GP cover out of hours, which is a real worry in rural areas, as is the time it takes ambulances to get to calls. Long waiting lists and overcrowded A & E were mentioned but people also wanted more nurses and better, more caring quality of nursing. They also wanted NHS manager numbers to be cut to the bone.  Education came second. Good, safe schools, top teaching, excellent quality of care, best exam results, good discipline, good sports facilities, high standards and high expectations – all of these were mentioned. Only one person lamented the absence of grammar schools in my county. People want comrepehensives but they want them to be the very best and not to cater for the lowest common denominator but to aim high.

Policing was a big issue – there is one officer on duty at night for the whole of the North Cotswolds outside of the towns. 

Everyone knows defence had to be provided by the state, and the proper equipment of the armed forces was a high priority. Everyone queried the reason for us to be fighting a war in Afghanistan.

And the rest? Nobody had a good word to say for the EU and all thought we should get out. They just don`t believe we ever will. More frequent refuse collection was a priority, recycling was surprisingly popular but everyone was cynical about whether the rubbish recycled at great trouble and expense actually went where it should. All thought money was entirely wasted on anything to do with climate change and nobody thought governments should subsidise the arts.  At all.

Prisons? Necessary, but people were surprisingly liberal in wanting more emphasis on rehabilitation and education than on punishment.

Political Correctness was scorned all round, as was most Health and Safety, everybody wanted old age pensions raised and benefits to those who could work cut, fraudulent disability allowance claimants should be punished but payments to the genuinely sick increased. Child allowance should be raised. Immigration should be more closely regulated and illegals sent home but there was a general tolerance of other people’s cultures and beliefs. Country ways should be respected and of course everyone wanted the hunting ban repealed while also saying that it was a lifestyle issue and had nothing to do with the government.

The general consensus was that other than spending on the major services and things people cannot provide for themselves, governments should butt out and leave us more money to spend on looking after ourselves wisely.

And everyone said there should be half as many MPs.

So there you have it – a picture of middle England, it seems to me. I asked about political affiliations. At the last election four voted Tory, three Labour, one Lib Dem. Next time, there will be six Tories , one LibDem and one UKIP.

But everybody believed whatever government came it would continue to waste our money, interfere too much in our everyday lives and never listen to what we say. There is a general cynicism about government. No wonder the election turnout continues to decline.

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