Is MP’s portrayal of progress in this borough accurate?

I’m not really political, but I do like to keep an eye on what our elected representatives are up to.

Quite recently Dr Luke Evans, our constituency MP, spoke for several minutes in the House of Commons about how well the Government was supporting the area and as a result, how much better everything had become already.

He listed the millions we have apparently received in funding (although it was not clear what was “extra”) and even found time to have the obligatory swipe at the LibDems. However, he managed to do this without any reference whatsoever to inflation, fuel prices, the cost-of-living crisis, the appalling state of the NHS (which pre-dates covid), the aftermath of Brexit, child poverty, the billions squandered on substandard PPE & ineffective IT systems, defence equipment that just doesn’t work, the increasing gap between rich & poor, food banks etc. etc. not to mention the PM’s contempt for the law, the doubtful sources of Tory party funding and many other similar matters. It was very much a pitched at the “haves” rather than the “have nots”, I suppose not surprising for an out & out Tory.

Sadly, Dr Evans has also supported colleagues who hold the view that poverty is in many cases selfinflicted, brought about by no understanding of home-economics, an inability to budget effectively, no cooking skills with a subsequent dependency on relatively expensive convenience foods and a lack of initiative and motivation (to find better paid work and/or work longer hours).

My circumstances mean I am not best placed to judge if Dr Evans’s rosy portrayal of progress in the constituency is accurate, but I’m sure there are many other HT readers who are. Perhaps they’d care to comment.

PS When quoting statistics about people in work, it is somewhat dishonest to exclude people who are/ were self-employed

Andrew Mann