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Hounslow Liberal Democrats |
Stop having a go
March 30, 2000 12:00 AM
By Cllr Ray Fincher, Liberal Democrat Group Leader in Feltham Chronicle/Hounslow Chronicle
By Cllr Ray Fincher, Liberal Democrat Group Leader in Feltham Chronicle/Hounslow Chronicle
Last week we had Gordon Brown's Budget revealed to us.
It would be mean not to raise a muted half cheer in recognition of the apparent late, but none the less welcome extra-funding for the significant areas of health and education. These actions we had recognised in the Liberal Democrat alternative Budget, which was published before the Chancellor got to his feet on March 21. This is a welcome change of heart by the cabinet.
Not least since campaigners - including Liberal Democrats and education and health professionals, together with concerned free-thinking people from other political parties and indeed those of no party - do seem at last to have punctured the previous complacent attitude of this government.
Ministers who have constantly told us there was no financial crisis in the health service or in education now freely talk about the struggle we have in front of us, over a period of years, to achieve the funding averages that our European partners already enjoy on health service provision. This does confirm that opposition to the Labour spin has been vindicated. We now have to play catch-up just to be average!
On the education front there is also no cause for government complacency. Any headteacher or governor will confirm the difficulty experienced in school budgeting over recent years.
In Hounslow this has been made worse by the Labour council under-funding schools by a staggering £12.1 million over the last five years. This is how far local settlements have fallen short of the figures set down in Department for Education and Employment guidelines.
Ministers and councillors should stop lecturing struggling, committed professionals and deal with their own real failures.
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