From the doorstep ...
Spent this morning on the doorstep talking to voters in the village of Cleator.
A lot of people were out, but of those we managed to catch it was interesting that the same themes were emerging from conversations with people with very diverse backgrounds and general views.
The message was that government at all levels needs to concentrate more about the basics which affect people's everyday lives - roads, trains and transport, refuse collection, local health services, local planning decisions, flooding. We were given examples of how Central Government and the County and Borough councils should be employing common sense rather than a "tick-in-the-box" mentality to sort out these services, and told that funding should go on front-line services rather than overheads, bureaucracy, and politicians' salaries and expenses.
I'm grateful to all those who spent time talking with us and those who returned survey forms. They gave us the benefit of a lot of good sense.
Local and national leaders ignore messages like this one at their peril.
A lot of people were out, but of those we managed to catch it was interesting that the same themes were emerging from conversations with people with very diverse backgrounds and general views.
The message was that government at all levels needs to concentrate more about the basics which affect people's everyday lives - roads, trains and transport, refuse collection, local health services, local planning decisions, flooding. We were given examples of how Central Government and the County and Borough councils should be employing common sense rather than a "tick-in-the-box" mentality to sort out these services, and told that funding should go on front-line services rather than overheads, bureaucracy, and politicians' salaries and expenses.
I'm grateful to all those who spent time talking with us and those who returned survey forms. They gave us the benefit of a lot of good sense.
Local and national leaders ignore messages like this one at their peril.
Comments
Its good to remain grounded in reality.