16/01/12 - The Way I See It: Chris Kelly MP writes for the Dudley Chronicle

The Commons returned last week.

I was at Birmingham Cathedral for a memorial service for the late, great David Grove OBE, a fellow Old Wulfrunian & West Midlands industrialist who, at the time of his death in November, employed 1,500 people including many in manufacturing in Dudley & the Black Country. Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham, spoke very movingly at the service. I have made a charity donation in David’s memory – if you would knew David or would like to make a donation visit justgiving.com/davidgrove

I held a very busy constituency advice surgery at Wordsley Community Centre followed by a meeting of the Dudley South Conservative Association executive committee at Kingswinford Conservative Club and then out on night patrol until 03:00 with Dudley Police with PC Mark Griffin. Whilst I was out there was one stabbing in the borough and two calls to Police about domestic violence. It is clear that drugs are a real menace in our society as a majority of incidents Police are called to day-in, day-out involve, at some level, illegal drugs. My night-time visit was partly designed to highlight some of the issues around excessive alcohol consumption. As the pubs began closing I saw at first-hand how the borough's CCTV cameras and Police force were working hard to maintain law and order.

I saw the custody cells at Brierley Hill Police Station, containing drug and alcohol testing equipment, a digital fingerprint reader and photograph booth, as well as the recently mothballed cells at Stourbridge Police Station. I also visited the control room at Halesowen Police Station. It was a very informative and interesting night out which reinforced my admiration for the work our Police do safeguarding our communities and protecting us from harm.

I appeared on the BBC Midlands Politics Show talking about my campaigning to eliminate cash from the metal trade as a means of reducing the theft of metal from public sector sites, power and transport infrastructure, private companies, church roofs and community centres etc. Following meetings with ministers I am now hopeful that 2012 will be the year we see much tighter regulation of the metal trade to protect taxpayers, infrastructure and our economy.

Child benefit

We do think it is fair to ask the better off to make a contribution to dealing with the deficit so the Government will be removing Child Benefit from higher rate taxpayers as announced. How the Government does that will be set out in the next few months. It is not fair that families earning £20,000 or £25,000 are being taxed to pay the child benefit of families earning £80,000 or £100,000.

Labour left Britain in a mess

Under Labour for every £4 spent by government, £1 was borrowed. Our debt got so big we were spending £120 million every day just paying the interest – and that bill is getting bigger.

The banks made a bad situation worse, but what really got Britain into this mess was years of Labour spending money we didn’t have and couldn’t afford.

Everyone knows that, as when someone runs up a massive credit card bill, the longer you put off dealing with debt, the worse it gets and the more it costs. It would have been much easier not to deal with the problem. But delay would just pass this generation’s debt onto our children, stall economic recovery and cost even more.

And created a something for nothing culture

Labour’s something for nothing culture was about more than just the Government borrowing money that we did not have. They failed to tackle welfare so that it was easier not to work, they let immigration get out of control and the failed to improve our education system.

And now they don’t have a plan to deal with it

Labour’s ‘Plan B’ of more spending, more borrowing and more debt is a plan for bankruptcy. What we’re facing is a debt crisis – too much borrowing and too much debt at every level – and the solution cannot be even more borrowing and more debt.

You wouldn’t get Fred Goodwin back to run the banks so why would you get Miliband and Balls back to run the economy?

> Chris Kelly can be contacted on 01384 211 041 or via officeATchriskellympDOTcom. You can also read the latest news & views at chriskellymp.com