Greg Barker's New Year message

The firm belief that Britain is a great country whose best days are yet to come is central to my politics and indeed my whole outlook on life! But it is difficult to be anything other than very concerned by the prospects for our country as we look into the New Year.

It is becoming ever clearer that the economic storm which has broken around the world is hitting us far harder here in the UK than many other countries. The collapse in the value of the pound against the Dollar and particularly the Euro graphically demonstrates that. Anyone planning a family holiday in Europe next year needs to do their sums very carefully.

But for many people now the prospect of any sort of holiday is a luxury they can ill afford. Many families are now worried about somebody losing their job. Pensioners living off their savings and investments were also well and truly clobbered in 2008. Yet although interest rates have collapsed to levels not seen in my lifetime, the reality is few people around here can actually borrow at these rates. Local small businesses are being squeezed dry by the banks and many young families trying to get on the housing ladder are finding it tough to get a mortgage at all.

It would be wrong to pretend that there are any quick fixes to problems that are so deep seated, such as the vast amount of public debt that now hangs over us and future generations. But we must start to learn the lessons of the "Age of Irresponsibility."

Pretending that the government had once and for all abolished "boom & bust" was as insane as it was arrogant. It encouraged far too many people to think they could borrow without consequence and never bother saving for a rainy day. If the government didn't, why should they? But talking to local people I think many Bexhillians were a lot more canny than that and never bought the spin and bluster of never ending economic growth. But the boom turning to bust still hurts nonetheless.

And while there certainly are important things that government can and must do to help in these difficult times, ultimately it is not going to be a temporary 2 1/2p cut in VAT or any other white rabbit, paid for with our money, that the chancellor can pull out of his hat that will turn this situation around. Our greatest hope is the hard work, innovation, skill and sheer determination of British business and the British workforce.

That must also mean encouraging people to work hard and save by allowing them to keep more of their own money. We need to give greater incentives to people to invest properly for the long term. We have to try to stop penalising people who have saved, so that when they come to retire and depend on the fruits of a lifetime of hard work, the taxman isn't helping himself for a second time. We have to re-establish the link between reward and hard work.

You would not believe the number of people that come to see me at my surgery in Bexhill who are trapped on benefits and are unable to work without their family losing out. Nor would you believe the number of cases of hard working local families running up debts because of mistakes made by the great Tax Credits bureaucracy.

We also need to do more help people understand financial risk, so they can make better informed decisions. But that starts with politicians being more honest and less vain when it comes to making their economic forecasts.

Britain still is a great country but if we are to achieve our full potential, we need to relearn some of the values and commonsense that herein Bexhill, never went out of fashion!