Politics has the solution

No doubt it has always been the case but it appears to me that at the moment too many people are saying that they simply want an answer to the current problem but reject a political explanation or proposal.

I experienced a recent example of this at a meeting of the Local Rother Federation of Small Businesses last week at which politicians from each major party were asked to speak. Members of the audience clearly did not want to hear about national policies from any of the speakers. I wonder why politicians were invited to sit on the panel if a political view on the current state of the economy was not being sought; or even why people attended the meeting if they did not wish to hear the political view.

I do understand that local traders are very worried about the unprecedented way the current economic recession is evolving.

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If a political solution is not what people want do they want anarchy or are they simply going to find their own individual solutions?

To a large extent the solution is in our own hands. We have no alternative but to just get on with life and make the best out of whatever is available to us. Unfortunately some of the blame for the state of the economy has to be laid at the feet of greedy and unscrupulous individuals.

In this country politicians are at fault because consecutive Governments have allowed a situation to arise where we have an unequal tax system with those on low incomes paying a larger proportion of their income in tax than those on higher incomes.

Liberal Democrats have a raft of fully funded proposals for making the taxation system more equal. These include a cut of 4p in the basic rate of tax and green taxes which make the polluter pay. 20bn of wasteful or ineffective government spending has been identified which we believe could be better used elsewhere, for instance by building improved public transport and insulating homes.

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So the solution I am offering is echoed in the closing words of Nick Clegg in his speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Harrogate last week.

"A never-ending cycle of red-blue, blue-red government has got us into this mess - it is never going to get us out. Try something new. Now is the time to think big. If you want better, choose different. Choose the Liberal Democrats".