This Tory Government is totally out of touch

IT always interests me to learn what leads a person to enter politics so I found Niki Hinman’s piece on Ross Mackinnon very readable (Newbury Weekly News, April 11).

Reading West and Mid Berks is a fascinating contest with no incumbent MP, unlike Newbury which is a re-play of 2019 in a smaller area.

However, I have different views than Ross on the role of councils.

He said in West Berks Council’s chamber recently that he thinks we should simply get on and administer services, not pontificate about matters of little relevance to local people which are the business of Westminster and Whitehall.

If only this Government would stick to doing its job and legislate in the public interest instead of Conservative Party interests, perhaps councils wouldn’t feel the need to call on Westminster so ‘do something’ about the crisis we face in delivering those services; from flood protection to helping care leavers. I agree with a long-serving local former Conservative councillor who told me recently that the past 14 years have seen the worst Government in his lifetime.

So I honestly don’t think Ross will get much of a welcome from voters in coming months.

My experience for the past year or more has been that ‘ABC’ (Anyone But Conservative) is what voters from Thatcham west to Hungerford want.

Ross tells Niki that his is “the party of aspiration”.

Brexit wrecked those aspirations for so many and the resulting fall in Britain’s reputation and living standards is shameful.

It will take a generation – through which his children and my grandchildren will have to live – to recover.

Meanwhile people are overwhelmingly desperate to see the back of this bunch of incompetent, uncaring and out-of-touch Tories that may be in office but fail to govern anything well.

DR TONY VICKERS

Liberal Democrat councillor for Hungerford and Kintbury ward Executive member for planning and community engagement

West Berkshire Council