It’s the turn of local Liberal Democrats leader Rob Colwell to write our Friday Politics column…
I’m writing this article on Sunday morning just as the London Marathon gets under way. It’s great to see so many people enjoying themselves in spring sunshine but also to see just how many of those taking part are supporting charitable causes. It shows Britain at its very best displaying a community spirit of which we can all be proud.
Sadly, I couldn’t run the marathon even if I tried. But this year I am taking part in another kind of marathon, a political one. Let me explain. As most of you will know, I’m standing in the coming general election. So I’m trying to get to know as many residents as possible.
With 41,000 households across the entire constituency that is no small task but I’m giving it my best shot. I’m using my mobile phone and the GPS to measure how far I’ve walked. So I can report that since early January I have walked 186 miles just knocking on doors. That’s the equivalent of seven marathons and it’s only April. With Mr Sunak continuing to put off the moment of reckoning with the electorate for as long as possible, I’m expecting to do a good few more marathons before election day.
By having so many conversations I’m starting to get a good idea of the issues which concern local people. The main topics raised nearly always relate to failing public services, with the NHS right at the top of what is becoming an increasingly long list. I’ll give you just two examples to illustrate this, one a very large issue and one a seemingly much smaller one. Yet they both have something in common.
The first example is the promised rebuild of our crumbling hospital. When our deputy leader Daisy Cooper spoke at the BBC Radio 4 Any Questions in Lynn last week she made an impassioned call to the government to “release the funding for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital rebuild” to much applause. But the assembled politicians would also have heard the repeated calls of “Get On With It” from the audience. With the endless delays, people are growing suspicious.
The second example seems very different. It’s about what my parents’ generation used to call a “lollipop lady”, although we now know that it could of course just as easily be a “lollipop man”. The lollipop lady in question – and in this case it was a lady – recently retired after 20 years’ dedicated service in Dersingham helping children cross the road. The county council told me that a replacement was “highly unlikely”. So a petition was organised and 347 local people signed. The Conservatives then performed a screeching U-turn and promised a replacement. But come the summer term no replacement is yet in place.
Spot the similarities? It’s not hard, is it? In both cases, the Conservatives make promises but don’t deliver. And that’s why they are having so much trouble persuading people to ever trust them again.