| Lawrie Quinn | In the local press |
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Lawrie Quinn writes for the local press |
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The lowest General Election turnout in Scarborough & Whitby reflected the national mood. It seems like a lifetime ago since the beginning of June and the endorsement of the electors for a further 4 to 5 years serving you at Westminster. As I look forward to the autumn and several weeks solely in Yorkshire, "on constituency matters" perhaps the Trader readership might care to hear about what has been personally been the most hectic period in my life.....even more than post-election 1997 !
The highlights have been my re-election as your MP. Then on my return to Westminster co-option onto the House of Commons Tug of War team, which prevailed for the first time ever over the House of Lords Team and helped raise thousands for Macmillan Nurses. This was followed by promotion to the new role of PPS in the Department of Trade and Industry, the better news about Plaxtons' new start, and last week my appointment to the Labour Party's national policy forum.
It was also my annual pleasure, last week, to entertain the Scarborough Civic Party at the Palace of Westminster before their visit to Buckingham Palace and Her Majesty's Garden Party. Lucy Haycock's well known local work for the voluntary sector will be a key feature in her year serving the people of the Borough and I'm pleased that we will get an opportunity in the Autumn to recognise some of the key players in this vital work for our community at a Mayor's tea party.
Not so good have been the 16 to 18 hour days at Westminster and the reality of London traffic and swarms of tourists who would have a far better time in Britain if they were encouraged to look north to the Yorkshire Coast and national parks .....
As I said earlier the low participation in recent elections gives all of us who recognise the importance of democracy great cause for concern. Earlier today, the Electoral Commission have ruled out compulsory voting after the 2001 resulted General Election all-time low turn-out of just 59 per cent.
But they have put forward a range of proposals designed to bring people back into the polling booths.
They include:
In the Autumn a White Paper will be published outlining the Government's proposals for Regional Government. I believe that structural changes like this and the reform /abolition of local government organisations like Scarborough Borough Council and the County Council. Progress making a one-stop unitary authority possible for the eastern part of North Yorkshire is long over due and will respond to many local concerns about service delivery and accountability.
So what do you think? Let me know by contacting my office or writing to me at the House of Commons
Perhaps you think things are fine as they are and improvements on the past?
I suppose this shows memory is a selective emotion and my happiest recollections are of hazy happy childhood summer days.....long bright and never ending. So I hope the readers of the Trader have a summer of pleasant memories and happy hazy days.....compliments of the season
If you need to contact my office .....please ring 01723 507000.....or call in at 53 Westborough, Scarborough between 10am and 1pm weekdays (except Wednesdays) or view my website at http://www.lawrie-quinn.org.uk
Lawrie Quinn MP
July 2001
Over that past fours years I have visited many local schools and I'm delighted that all the schools in Scarborough & Whitby will see bigger direct payments coming this year. Head-teachers of every primary school will receive not £10,000 as planned but £13,000 with the larger primary schools receiving not £50,000 but £63,000. In addition, the head-teacher of each secondary school will receive for the smaller schools not £57,000 but £68,000 and the larger schools a payment of not £92,000 but £115,000.
I have been able to help health ministers to see the effects of years of under investment in our NHS locally. So it will be of no surprise to the readers of the Trader that I raised a special cheer when the Chancellor announced a extra direct cash boost for local acute hospital trusts to deal with the problems of the old Nightingale wards as well as a fund to recruit key health service staff.
I know that every parent worries about their children and wants them growing up safe from the scourge of drugs. That's why we are investing an extra £300 million over 3 years to fight crime and drugs, with money going directly to local crime and safety partnerships. The impact of this assistance in our community and coastal towns around the country will be tremendous. North Yorkshire Police recently received record additional funds. The budget's extra cash will fund the important community work directly, to deal with the cause of 80% of criminal activity locally - the scourge of drugs
The people and businesses of Scarborough and Whitby have urged me to ensure that investing in Britain's future takes a balanced approach - with stability the foundation, more investment not less, and targeted tax cuts we can afford. I believe Gordon Brown has delivered to this request.
Labour's package for hard working families includes extending the lowest, 10p rate of tax to give an affordable income tax cut to many of the 11,031 families throughout Scarborough & Whitby and a £5 a week increase in the Working Families Tax Credit for local families. This will reinforce our plans to make work pay and will also help reduce unemployment which has already fallen by 14% since 1997.
Our focus on hard working families goes further with the £10 a week Children's Tax Credit - Labour's family tax cut. For families in the year of a child's birth it will rise, as a baby credit, to £20 a week - up to £1,040 a year from April 2002.
On average, families with children will be £240 a year better off. Last week's Budget shows that Labour has made its choice - stability first to allow us to help hard working families and to put schools and hospitals first.
I believe it is a choice our opponents can't match. The Conservatives are committed to making £16 billion of cuts in vital public services or, rather, £24 million here in Scarborough & Whitby, hitting local schools and hospitals. People remember the last Tory economic disaster when unemployment hit 3 million and interest rates rose to 15% for a full year. Nobody wants a return to those days.
One of my key local pledges in 1997 was employment opportunity for all With one million more people in work under Labour, and record vacancies in every region, we have the chance to realise a historic ambition of full employment. Locally unemployment figures are down by over 1200, with youth unemployment down by three-quarters thanks to the New Deal. I believe we must go further to make work pay and create more new job chances.
I've told Trader readers just how proud I am that this Government has established our National Minimum Wage. From October this year, wages for over-21s are to rise to £4.10 an hour, recognising the voices of business and trade unions in the drive towards fairer wages.
As a former manager, I know that closing the productivity gap is the key to building a dynamic and enterprising economy with rising living standards for all. This Budget includes a package of measures to help businesses: - Reducing the administrative and compliance cost burdens placed on small and medium sized firms by the VAT and corporation tax systems - Consultation on a new tax credit for community investment in order to encourage private investment in enterprise in disadvantaged communities. - There will be greater flexibilities for Regional Development Agencies to help promote growth and enterprise across all regions of the country
Budget 2001 also confirms that Labour is listening to motorists and balancing their needs with environmental concerns: - 2p cut in ultra low sulphur petrol and a 3p cut in ultra low sulphur diesel from today - Major reform of lorry VED from December 2001, bringing UK rates down to among the lowest in Europe for the cleanest lorries - A freeze in car and motorcycle VED, and an extension of the £55 reduced rate of VED to cars with engines up to 1.5 litres benefiting
Our commitment is to stability first - locking in the foundations of stable and steady growth. Only by locking in stability, can we invest in the nation's priorities: - Inflation is forecast to remain close to Government's 2.5% target and the economy is forecast to grow by 2.25% to 2.75% in each of next three years. - Inflation and interest rates are at 30-year lows. Mortgages now average £1,200 a year less than under the Tories. - Under the Tories (1979-1997) growth averaged only 2%. Under Labour it has averaged 2.7% - From 1979-1997, 42p in every extra pound spent by government went to debt and social security, now the figure is only 16p - leaving more than 80p in every pound to go to front-line public services.
Trader readers will actually be asking ; " What does the Budget mean for me, my family and friends ?" Personal tax and benefit changes over the Parliament mean by October 2001: - the direct tax burden on a single-earner family on average earnings with two children will be the lowest since 1972; and - families with someone in full-time work will have a guaranteed minimum income of at least £225 a week, £11,700 a year.
Most serious economic commentators say that Labour has proved itself as the party of economic competence, whilst our opponents are proving that they still can't be trusted on the economy. In their last government they gave us 22 broken promises on tax, 3 million unemployed, interest rates at 15 per cent for a whole year, 100,000 homes repossessed, 1,000 businesses going to the wall every week and year on year cuts to schools and hospitals. Now their recipe for unfunded and irresponsible tax cuts and £16 billion cuts to public spending will take us straight back to the boom and bust of the 80s.
Gordon Brown told parliament:
"Our success in cutting debt and unemployment and rising economic growth have permitted us.............to release £4 billion a year more for our priorities. And after the decisions already announced I can still go further. The Government could choose to pay off more debt--but we have already paid off £34 billion this year.We could choose to repeat the pattern of Budgets at this stage of previous Parliaments, and make tax cuts that are unaffordable in the long term. But it is right to choose the prudent course for Britain.
For savers, he extended the tax reliefs for individual savings accounts, so for the next five years up to £7,000 a year of savings can generate income and capital gains that will both be tax free.
He cut tax for all savers, including pensioners. From April pensions are raised well above inflation--indeed, above earnings--by £5 a week for single pensioners and £8 for couples, and next year by £3 and £4.80.
The winter allowance and the free TV licence for the over-75s that we introduced, and the Christmas bonus are retained .
Since November, the Treasury have been consulting on our new pension credit. It will be introduced in 2003. Pensioner couples with incomes below £200 and single pensioners with incomes below £135 a week--many millions of pensioners in our country--will receive the new pension credit, which will reward rather than penalise their saving. It will rise in line with earnings every year and in this way, it will give recipients more than even the earnings link in the basic state pension would have given them. In this Budget he announced that from 2003, when the pension credit is introduced, pensioners' tax allowances will also be linked not just to prices but to earnings.
In addition we still see the introduction of the concessionary transport scheme that so many pensioners have campaigned for locally delivered from June. If the Labour government is returned after the General Election all people over the age of 60 or disabled with receive these benefits.
I go on campaigning for all pensioners to receive the free TV licence and believe continuing economic growth with allow this to be delivered in a second term of a Labour government.
The 2001 Budget shows Labour is investing for the long term to build a Britain of opportunity and prosperity for all - in Scarborough & Whitby that will have an effect on most of our community.
As usual, Trader readers can contact me on 01723 507 000 or call directly to my Parliamentary office at 53 Westborough, Scarborough where my staff will be pleased to assist with any concerns."
Lawrie Quinn MP
March 2001
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