Milford Mercury | Local News, Sport & Entertainment

The public have difficulty in believing politicians

From the Milford Mercury, first published Thursday 21st Apr 2005.

Dear Sir, Two serious issues raised their head in the Mercury, dated April 7.

The first was the admission that there was a severe shortage of social housing in the county. I saw figures recently that showed that since the Conservatives introduced the Right to Buy policy in the 1980's, there were now one million fewer houses owned by councils and housing associations in the UK, despite the building of new houses by the latter. To make matters worse, the population has increased.

I cannot understand how houses can be sold to tenants with a discount that is not available to private home owners as this goes against market principles. Councils are normally expected to get the best price when selling council assets, but housing is exempt for some reason.

The other article was about nurses being advised not to wear their uniforms outside work, because of the public's fear of MRSA.

The Conservatives are making manifesto commitments about eradicating the superbug from our hospitals, but it must be remembered that MRSA existed when they were in government. It killed people then. MRSA did not arise under the Labour Government.

Michael Howard makes great play on the issue of hospital cleanliness and we are always told that his mother in law died of MRSA. Many people blame the cleaning issue on the contracting out of cleaning (and other services), by the previous Conservative government, in which Michael Howard served.

Had cleanliness remained the highest priority, and not winning contracts at the lowest possible costs been the main incentive, maybe we would not have the problem we have now.

Michael Howard takes issue over so many of the problems in this country, but it is so easy to look back a decade or two, to see where they originated.

The issue of immigration is another that he is spouting on about, but it's now come out that Michael Howard's father and grandfather's entry into this country was rather dubious, to say the least.

Labour could have halted the Right to Buy policy and reversed contracting out of cleaning services in hospitals, but the Conservatives manifesto is likely to be dodgy as the blame for many of our problems now really need to be laid at the door of the Conservative Party.

I look forward to the day that the Conservatives actually hold their hands up and admit their past mistakes, like the National Party did in South Africa.

No wonder the general public have difficulty in believing politicians, whatever their party colour.

Andrew C. Lye, Woodlands View, Johnston, Haverfordwest

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