Tired, unelected PM has run out of ideas

Writing exclusively for the Express & Star, Conservative leader David Cameron says he was not impressed with the Prime Minister's visit to Wolverhampton

These are difficult times for the country. People have lost their jobs, politicians have lost their reputations, and we as a nation are falling into the worst levels of debt in the developed world.

So it's important that we have a government that understands the challenges we face, and is ready to deal with them.

At Prime Minister's Questions this week I asked the Prime Minister, again, to come clean about his spending plans. His own figures show that under his plans the government will cut spending in the coming years - just as households and businesses are having to. But he is still trying to play the British people for fools by refusing to admit this.

We can't afford to have a Prime Minister who is in denial about the realities of the situation we're in, especially when he is largely responsible for it in the first place. If he can't give straight answers to straight questions in the House of Commons, perhaps he was more candid with the entrepreneurs he met in Wolverhampton yesterday.

Did he explain to them what his government is going to do to get us out of this mess? And did he explain to them what he intends to do about the huge burdens of bureaucracy and taxes that he has imposed on businesses since 1997? Britain has slid down the global league tables in productivity and competitiveness. And with the number of apprenticeships falling well below the government's own targets we're not providing the next generation with the skills needed to reverse that slide.

Examples

So it's one thing to talk about encouraging entrepreneurs to come forward who will build the businesses of the future - we need them to do so if Britain is going to hold its ground in a competitive, post-recession world. But what about the existing businesses we already have that are struggling to get by? Will the Prime Minister look at what has actually been happening on the ground in the West Midlands?

Just look at a few examples of what has been happening in the last month or two. In Willenhall, 50 people have been made redundant by Swedish firm Assa Abloy - a sad situation that has dealt a real blow to the town's historic lock-making industry. In Smethwick, 60 people have lost their jobs after KEB Fabrications went into administration.

And in Brownhills, Castings Plc made 350 people redundant last month after profits fell by 78 per cent. The directors of this foundry blamed the Government for not doing enough to help manufacturing companies. And they're right - it hasn't.

For years the Government neglected this country's manufacturing base and based our economic growth solely on the pillars of the financial services, the housing boom and public spending. Now those pillars have crumbled they've realised too late that manufacturing does still have a key role to play in our economy.

Chance

Back in 1996 I was selected to be the Conservative parliamentary candidate in Stafford. I know from that experience how important manufacturing and construction is to the region. And for me it was great to see Staffordshire County Council come so decidedly into Conservative control for the first time in 28 years in last month's elections.

I want the whole country to have a chance to vote for that same change at a national level. This tired, unelected Prime Minister has completely run out of ideas. This week we saw his 12th "relaunch" in a document called "Building Britain's Future". But it is just 126 pages of rehashed announcements, old policies, and poor imitations of Conservative policies.

This so-called "national plan" is not equal to the problems our nation faces. There is no plan to transfer power from the political elite to the man and woman in the street. No plan to reform schools and the NHS by putting parents and patients in control. No proposals to deal with the wave of violent crime. And no credible plan to revitalise our economy.

To top it all, it's a relaunch without a price tag because we now know that the routine spending review has been shelved to avoid having to admit to spending cuts. This just isn't good enough. After 12 years of Labour, Britain desperately needs a new direction. The only way to get that is to have a General Election and bring in a fresh government that can face up to the challenges of our time.