After months of dodging the question the Labour Government have finally admitted the United Kingdom is, as we all knew, in recession. To be fair the Government does work to two quarters of economic decline before announcing we are “officially” in recession.

Any Stockport resident facing redundancy or who is currently unemployed will let you know how hard this “Credit Crunch” is hitting ordinary people – as will the owners of businesses facing the threat of closure everyday. To hear Gordon Brown on Radio Four’s Today programme it is all the fault of the Global Economy. I lost count of the number of times he said this during the interview. Despite being asked on three separate occasions if we had returned to bust, after his previous claims that New Labour (a title now seemingly dropped) had ended the cycle of boom and bust, he would not answer. Why Mr Brown can not just put up his hands and say “Sorry we got it wrong, we were not the only ones, but we got it wrong” is beyond me.

The endless announcements and seminars are as embarrassing as the Junior Ministers being pushed out to be shot at after announcing the “green shoots of recovery”. I read in the Sunday papers that the very people in Whitehall charged with saving us from this slump, spent the night recession became official at the Treasury, not creating a cunning plan but celebrating Burns Night eating and drinking your taxes. At the same time we learn we were three hours from a banking collapse. Come on Mr Brown and Mr Darling – get a grip.

The failure to prepare is hitting families in Britain. Labour’s astonishing claim last week that there is “light at the end of the tunnel” shows how out of touch they are. Surely someone must have told them it’s the train coming faster down the tunnel?

We need urgent action to get the Banks lending money to each other and to the tax payers who saved their skins. The cash has to start flowing again to help the innocent victims of this recession.

The Country needs a strong Government who will take urgent decisions, force the Banks to pass on the rate reductions in full to its borrowers. Public finances must be brought under control, not spent on Whisky and Haggis. We need clear, sensible plans for the future so that confidence returns and we can again begin to grow.

Cllr Brian Bagnall
Conservative
Bramhall South

This article, by Cllr Brian Bagnall, was first published by the Stockport Express 04/02/2009.