By Isle of Wight Observer
Spring has sprung, the clocks have gone forward, and – praise be! – the Easter holidays are now upon us. While a young man’s thoughts may turn to love and romance, I content myself with thoughts of the upcoming council elections. I know, it’s sad, isn’t it? Possibly only a third of us will vote next month, and frankly, I’m surprised that many bother. Trust in politicians is at an all time low and the only certainty is that whoever wins, taxes will increase, locally and nationally.
I’ve just read that 17,000 badgers have been culled since Starmer & Co took office. Labour promised to end the cull during the last general election campaign, yet some of their new licences will run until 2029. Politicians love making promises during elections, but they ignore them afterwards. Legally, councils can only increase tax by 4.99 per cent, so that’s exactly what they always do. The only reason they stop there is because the law prevents them from demanding more. Imagine getting 5 per cent interest on your savings every year, guaranteed.
Our council always claims it’s broke; they’ve cried wolf for as long as I can remember. Is it any wonder most of us haven’t a clue what the real picture is?
Everyone’s feeling the pinch. Whatever we buy, it costs more than it did a year ago. This government doesn’t understand business, or that it can’t keep raising taxes without having a detrimental effect on the whole economy. The world is teetering on the edge of a global recession.
Whatever your feelings about the war that isn’t a war, pray that it ends quickly.
Remember when the LibDems promised to end tuition fees? That was particularly popular with students. Once in coalition with the Tories, they admitted it was unaffordable and scrapped it.
Next time you hear any MP hand-wringing over the fast rising cost of living, remember they will trouser a decent pay rise this year. Their new pay rate is £94,000, rising to £110,000 over the next few years. “Not our fault,” MPs cry, “it’s an independent award.” Councillors earn a fraction of the money MPs make. They’re called “allowances”, not salaries, but whatever they call the money, some seem to make a living at it, and that goes up every year too.
Our MPs and councillors usually mean well and are a fairly honest lot. Those “brown envelopes” of local legend probably don’t exist in reality. It’s no surprise that many can’t be bothered to vote; remember that Sir Humphrey runs Whitehall, and senior council officers run the council. Sometimes, those well-rewarded individuals ignore the elected members entirely.
In the weeks ahead, you’ll hear from many ambitiously optimistic candidates who’d love your vote on polling day. In the olden days, you could pick a candidate from whichever party you felt had policies aligning with your own particular peculiarities – left, right or centre. When the votes were in, one party or another would win a majority and take control. For 17 odd years here, that was the Lib Dems. Eventually, we became thoroughly fed up with that lot and replaced them with the Tories. When they too became tiresome, we voted for supposedly “independent” candidates instead. Unfortunately, many of those were thinly disguised former Labour, Tory, LibDem or Green party members.
In the coming weeks, people might suggest you vote for the person, not the party. The trouble with that is you won’t have a clue what they really stand for, or who they’ll align with once elected. After polling day, we get groups like “Island First” or “Empowering Islanders”. Who knows what they stand for?
If you do bother voting, whoever you pick, try to choose a candidate who makes good financial decisions. Thankfully there’s no cull on the Island, so you can’t inadvertently vote for a closet badger murderer.’