Politics

HOW grateful that Waveney MP Bob Blizzard is to step in and ask government to help Waveney District Council in its current difficulties with the Benefits Agency.

Unfortunately, when the long suffering Council tax payer looks at the 'help' received from Westminster during the last 12 years of Labour in power one can't help but think this particular silver lining masks a very dark cloud indeed.

Mr Blizzard might address himself to the following: local government reform in 2000 that ushered in the era of fat cat local government managers - there are now over a 1,000 earning in excess of �100,000; council tax more than doubled, with no discernable improvement in services, as councils spend a fortune on the tick box culture and internal audits to satisfy government's obsession with target setting and compliance; the massive increase in benefit costs as welfare dependency becomes either a career option or lifestyle choice for millions - there are over seven million people of working age now classed as 'economically inactive'; uncontrolled, mass immigration with commensurate demands on schools, hospitals, housing, and benefits - how ludicrous was Jack Straw's earlier assertion that we'd receive only 16,000 migrants from eastern Europe? business rates paid in Waveney given directly to the Treasury before redistribution to Labour's client state across the UK; inflation busting wage rises -set by central government - and gold plated pensions for public sector employees to appease Labour's paymasters in the trade unions, but paid for by higher taxes on jobs and workers in the remnants of the productive, private sector economy.

One can only conclude from the above that with friends in government like this, the taxpayers of Waveney certainly don't need any enemies.

STEPHEN CHILVERS

Hubbard's Avenue

Lowestoft