What have Tories ever done for us?

I always thought that as people grew older they veered more to the right of politics and found a natural home in the Tory Party but as someone in their 70s, I find that I am more and more repulsed by the unfairness of Conservatives policies and the way they are implemented.

They have served to perpetuate the divisions between the well off and deprived areas of the country – and between the have and have-nots in our society.

Recently, even former Tory PM Sir John Major bemoaned the lack of fairness in British society and admitted that the North East and other regions away from London had not had their fair share of funding from successive governments.

I’m sure that this criticism could be leveled at governments of both political hues, but the Tory party have embraced this policy of unfairness with much greater

enthusiasm. Cuts in local authority funding since 2008 have been greater than those to central government and reforms to the way that local authorities are now being funded means councils in poorer areas have had to cut back local services much more than those from more affluent areas. Local government is also a convenient whipping boy as local councils, not central government, get the blame for reductions in service and increases in council tax to compensate for central funding cuts.

Consequently, those immortal words uttered by David Cameron some 10 years ago that “we are all in this together” have turned out to be a sick joke as savage cuts to public services have impacted more on the less well-off, and income and corporation tax cuts have benefited the well-off more than the poor.

Yet the Tory mantra is still

more tax cuts, which can only be funded by more cuts to public services already at breaking point. All of which makes me wonder why people in this region feel comfortable in voting Tory.

However, we do have two local sitting MPs in Berwick and Hexham, so perhaps one or both could explain the benefits of voting for their party. To paraphrase Monty Python: “What have the Tories ever done for us?”

JEFF DINNING, Tynemouth