As Rodney Sadd explains in his letter to The Voice on Nov 14: “People are totally fed up with years of austerity and uncertainty, just look around.” How very true.
South Lincolnshire is demonstrably suffering from a decade of unprecedented cutbacks in housing, healthcare, social care, per-pupil school funding, policing (including dealing with anti-social behaviour, rogue gangmasters and modern slavery), council services, transport, etc.
Also, our planet is facing terminal global warming and species extinction, and the UK faces an urgent need to develop skilled workers to provide career opportunities for our young people and reduce our dependency on skilled workers from overseas.
So, what has Sir John Hayes done for our area during his 22 years in office?
If you look at his Wikipedia entry, it says he’s “considered a social conservative, economic protectionist, communitarian and Eurosceptic. He strongly supported Britain’s withdrawal from the EU and has spoken regularly about his belief in conservative ideas and philosophy. Hayes is known for speaking passionately and theatrically in the House of Commons chamber and has been described as a ‘colourful character’ who is ‘popular and influential on the Tory right’.” But what has he actually done to improve the lives of constituents locally and in our country as a whole?
The best way to answer this question is to analyse his voting record in Parliament. How many people would know how to do this? Certainly not me, until earlier this week. What I discovered is that all you have to do is type “voting record of John Hayes MP” into your browser of choice and you’ll automatically be directed to ‘TheyWorkForYou.com’, a site run by a charity that offers an instantaneous analysis of all MPs’ voting records (related to a range of key social, economic and political issues) and, also, allows you to delve further, vote-by-vote, if you wish. The results for John Hayes are at https://bit.ly/32EU57O.
In terms of climate change and species extinction, John Hayes has “generally voted against measures to prevent climate change”. He’s also “consistently voted for selling England’s state owned forests” and, on Jan 26, 2015, actually voted against “explicitly requiring an environmental permit for hydraulic fracturing activities”.
In terms of unfair funding for public services in South Lincolnshire, he’s consistently voted for Conservative austerity measures, including “reducing central government funding of local government”, “reducing welfare benefits” and for the iniquitous “spare room (aka bedroom) tax”.
And, in terms of career opportunities for young people, he’s “consistently voted for ending financial support for 16-19-year-olds on training and further education” and also voted to increase university tuition fees to the highest level in the world.
I could go on, but won’t, as it’s better if people read his voting record for themselves.
My own personal conclusion is that, until South Holland & The Deepings becomes a ‘marginal seat’, future governments are unlikely to feel minded to invest in our left-behind area.
So, I shall be voting on Dec 12 for Davina Kirby, the Lib Dem candidate.
It’s clear to me that not only will Davina Kirby be a wonderful constituency MP but also has the insights and passion to lead a transformational improvement in the interests of everyone living in our constituency.
Alan Meekings
by email
