The Good, The Bad and the Let's Wait and See

It's been almost a year since the coalition came to power. The furious negotiations between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative leadership seems a long way off now.

Never Forget The Debt

I'm pleased to say that some things have not been forgotten. Primarily we have not forgotten the mess Gordon Brown left us in. Things are tougher now than they were 3 years ago, and doubtless people will start blaming the "bad old Tories" at some point. However, for the time being sense is still prevailing as the Country remembers the difficult but honest appraisal the Conservative Party, and in particular David Cameron gave, of the future, this time last year.

Tax, Lies and Tuition Fees

The three main parties all made various pledges and promises. When elected as the new Labour leader Ed Miliband made promises and pledges. In the case of both Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband those pledges have already been shown to be worth less than the paper they were written on.

Nick Clegg's volte face on tuition fees has been astounding, and is only the most notable of a litany of pledges he made before the elcetion. One can forgive him for compromising for the sake of stable government, but there is a difference between compromising and offering a free vote on the one hand, and wholeheartedly rejecting your own promises. The latter can best be described as disingenuous, but at worst as a lie.

Ed Miliband on the other hand wasted little time after Alan Johnsons' departure as Shadow Chancellor in appointing Ed Balls. Dare we ask is Mr Balls a stalwart supporter of Mr Miliband's economic vision for the Country? Er not exactly, given less than 9 months earlier he had stood in a leadership campaign against Mr Miliband, the chief reason being his fundamental disagreement with Ed's economic approach!

So who didn't lie or at the very least bend the truth? The Conservative leadership have made their position clear from the off. Things needed to be cut back spending was out of control and things were going to be extremely tough, but it was the only way out of the abyss into which Blair and Brown had pushed us. Dare we forget the note found in the Treasurey written by the outgoing senior civil servant in that department in May 2010 - "There's no money left"!

The Recession in Elmbridge

Well there wasn't. But things are getting better very slowly. The pinch is being felt and those around our Borough are no exception. Whilst we remain well below the national jobless average in Elmbridge, we are still seeing increases in numbers out of work. That is bad news and means more people having to rely on Local Authorities to survive.

Balancing the Books at Elmbridge

Happily Elmbridge is in as good a position as any authority to weather the storm. That is in no small part thanks to the frugal and prudent management of the Borough's finances by the Conservative administrations over the last 5 years.

Before that we had a Residents Association led Council. Ideal for petty bickering but not so good if you want to keep Council Tax low and frontline services financially viable.

The Residents Associations persist in the view that it will all be all right even if there isn't any money. It won't. Around the Country we are seeing Councils reaping the consequences of failing to make savings and prudent financial management decision during the good times, preferring the spend, spend, spend culture promulgated by New Labour.

A stark figure that lays this bare is that in their last 5 years in control of Elmbridge Borough Council the Residents Associations raised Council tax by a staggering 40%. In the last 5 years the Conservative administration has raised Council tax by only 4.9%!