11/05/00 - Blair doing more harm than good: Chris writes to The Birmingham Post

Sir, - Tony Blair's pledge following Labour's recent drubbing in the local and London elections that his Government will remain at 'the radical centre' of British politics should be a cause of concern to the electorate.

New Labour's 'radical' first three years in government has led to an explosion in the number of elected politicians and associated bureaucracy, leaving many people feeling ever more removed from the political elite rather than closer to the democratic decision making process.

Talking shops have been set up in Scotland and Wales. The West Lothian question remains unanswered and the leadership of the Welsh Assembly has been seized from the Blairite installed by Millbank. Similarly, in London the decision to expand the level of local government led to an election campaign that even a Prime Minister renowned for his control freakery could not control. So called reform of the House of Lords will not now be completed until sometime after the next general election - if at all.

In the meantime we are left with the unsatisfactory situation of a Prime Minister creating more peerages for his own party than any other Prime Minister in history.

Blair's radicalism is nothing but change for change's sake. Unlike the radicalism of the Thatcher years, Blair is doing far more harm than good. The electorate has begun to realise that the constitutional impact of a second Labour term in office would be catastrophic.

The Labour Party in Wolverhampton faced a drubbing in the council elections on May 4.

However, despite the Conservatives gaining seven seats right across the town, Wolverhampton is still massively unbalanced politically. The town still has a one party monopoly in terms of its political representation.

With three Labour MPs and 33 Labour councillors controlling WMBC, compared with 24 Conservatives, the local Labour Party still has a stranglehold on the political decision making process.

This cannot be healthy for a vibrant town with ambitions of city status such as Wolverhampton. The danger is that Wolverhampton could become a town like so many in the North East where the Labour Party has total control and where council tax remains massively inflated year upon year. Judging by the local election results, however, I somehow doubt that Wolverhampton will remain a Labour stronghold for too much longer.

CHRIS D KELLY
Tettenhall,
Wolverhampton.