New Year Thoughts

January 2006

2005 may be remembered for its disasters – the Tsunami, hurricanes in the USA and the London bombings and at this holiday time, my thoughts are with those who lost loved ones in these and other incidents.

But it was also an important year also for Portsmouth – with the Trafalgar 200 commemorations shown around the world, the Festival of the Sea and miracle of miracles, the Tower finally open! I am critical of the contract to build the Tower and the mismanagement under Tory and Labour administrations on the council but we have now got to turn it into a success. We need at least 350,000 visitors a year to go up it every year for twenty years to get just some money back! So please go up it, the view is spectacular!

Politically, the General Election saw a bad result for both the Conservatives who hardly increased the vote at all and Labour who could only scrape just over a third of vote by Tony Blair promising to resign during this Parliament!

Charles Kennedy in contrast led the Liberal Democrats to their most successful result for 80 years. He was widely seen as opposing Labour more effectively than the Tories in the last Parliament by repeatedly proving that he can take the right political decisions - opposing the Iraq war, backing more investment in public services and leading the campaign against university tuition fees and ID cards. So, he has my absolute and complete backing.

And the Tories’ new leader? The chief architect of that spectacularly unsuccessful 2005 Election Manifesto, David Cameron. He supported the Iraq War while Ken Clarke for example showed the political nous not to. Just a few months ago, the Tories in Cameron’s manifesto proposed spending a massive £1.2 billion to subsidise those already getting private health care – without funding an extra NHS nurse, doctor or operation. So when the Tories complain about the NHS, think what it would be like if they had won the election! And Cameron now supports university tuition fees which leaves students with massive debts.

Finally may I take this opportunity to wish you a very happy and successful New Year. And let’s hope with Harry back, Pompey stay in the Premiership!