August 2 2013

Are your main political concerns governed by what issues are in the headlines? In other words does the media contribute, or perhaps even dictate, what political issues worry you?

I ask because at my street surgery in Cleethorpes’ St. Peter’s Avenue last week the issues were markedly different from the previous month. A few weeks ago Europe, in all its forms, was clearly at the forefront of peoples’ minds. That was understandable since Parliament had been discussing the Bill to authorise an IN/OUT referendum and I was asking them to sign up to support the Conservative campaign to legislate for that referendum before the next election; a proposal being opposed by Labour and the LibDems.

Last week I was again asking them to sign up to supporting the ‘Let’s Decide’ campaign as it’s called but hardly anyone wanted to talk about Europe. There had been no bad headlines about ‘Europe’ pushing us around – Abu Qatada is in Jordan, UKIP are down in the polls, the economy is recovering and the sun is shining. Certainly Cleethorpes has had a good few weeks; not just the weather but the fantastic success of the Air Show, the Carnival and Armed Forces Day which all brought thousands into the Town.

So what did people want to talk about last week? Well, since our Police & Crime Commissioner, Matthew Grove, was with me it’s understandable that policing issues were to the fore; but even that, in one sense, is a good news story since crime is at a 30 year low.

Matthew is proving the case that the introduction of Police Commissioners was a good policy, of course there will be some commissioners who fail but we can all pass judgement and choose not to re-elect them. That’s something that could not be said about the anonymous police authorities that preceded the commissioners. Matthew is providing a real opportunity for the public to engage with him and express their concerns about policing in their own area. He is constantly attending residents meetings, parish councils and similar gatherings – if you belong to one of these groups and haven’t had him along invite him he’ll be delighted to meet with you.

There’s no doubting the economy is on the up and as the Telegraph reported on 25^th July there is growing confidence among local businesses. As Ian Kelly, Chief Executive of the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce stated in the article their own economic survey reflected the national picture with ‘sales orders, training, turnover the profit expectations all showing sharp increases’ and that 68 per cent of firms said they were planning to recruit new staff.

Certainly there was a buzz down the Avenue and much more of the elusive ‘feel-good’ factor than only a month ago.

If you rummage around in the recycling box and find a newspaper from a month ago it can often feel like another country. Read some of the articles and you think ‘I wonder what happened to that story?’

But, back to my original question, ask yourself what the first three concerns are today and I suspect you would, off the top of your head, say the economy – you want to know if you’ll be better off next year than this – immigration and either policing or the NHS might be next. I say this because these are almost always at the top of the list. I challenge you to ask yourselves in a month’s time and see what you come up with.

Interestingly welfare abuse which was a big issue until recently has slipped down the list, perhaps because people can now see how hard the Government are clamping down on it.

After these issues people will almost always complain about local services such as the state of footpaths, dog-fouling and street cleaning.

Finally I can’t let pass without comment last week’s visit by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg & Energy Secretary Ed Davey. It’s very rare for two cabinet ministers to visit any constituency on the same day and it shows how committed to developing the area the Government is. They can see the prospects and have shown commitment by investing in improvement to our infrastructure and approving Growth Fund bids and now we can all see the result of both Government support and private investment – regeneration and real jobs.