Ministers notable for ineptitude

LOOKING back over the past 10 years of our current government, I have concluded that the current batch of Ministers of State are, in most cases, noteworthy for their ineptitude, incompetence and downright idiocy.

In the wake of the drone fiasco at Gatwick airport, we discover that Chris Grayling, our Minister for Transport, was alerted to the danger that they posed quite a few years ago, but he did not think that any legislation has been necessary.

Common sense should have made him aware that immediate regulation was essential.

Of course Grayling’s handling of our lamentable train services is yet another example of his impotent approach.

The former Chancellor, George Osborne’s austerity policy chose to impose gargantuan financial cuts right across our essential services including the police. Consequently, despite pleas from Chief Constables throughout the country, no restoration of police numbers appears to have been made. As a result, crime has been on the increase, with requests for urgent police presence often going unattended because of a shortage of officers.

In fairness, both our present Foreign Minister and Home Secretary appear to be doing a reasonable job, but I have little or no faith in a g government which can allow so many lawful citizens no protection against violent criminals: can cause so much d distress via the muchmaligned Universal Credit, and the so-called ‘bedroom tax’: can tolerate the need for ‘food banks’: can allow so many financially distressed, and often homeless, people in our own country while sending in excess of £14bn via the Department for International Development. Despite my frustration, the thought of Jeremy Corbyn as the next PM is anathema to my own sense of a hopeful future. If only the present Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, had been seen as a viable leader of the Labour party. I regret to say it, but I feel a profound sense of despair for what is ahead of us in the UK.