PM Liz: hear the voice of the people
'Don't let us freeze and don't let us starve this winter' - that is the stark message of a growing number of people to Britain's new Prime Minister.
The cost of living crisis is the biggest challenge that any PM has faced in a generation and today we urge Liz Truss to take radical action to ensure people can heat their homes and feed their families in the looming winter. Soaring energy bills and eye-watering inflation not only threaten every family in the land but pose a life and death challenge to many of our smallest businesses and pubs too - on whom our communities and many of our jobs depend.
Add to that an NHS in crisis, roads and rail unfit for the 21st century, a woeful shortage of affordable housing, sewage being discharged in our seas and rivers and a desperate shortage of skilled labour - and the outlook for the most seasoned of political leaders could not be more daunting.
So today, this newspaper spells out some key changes that should top Ms Truss's To Do list. They include a wholesale streamlining of central government and fat cat bureaucrats, an energy cost furlough scheme, a radical overhaul of the
NHS and dental services, a new approach to law and order, punitive sanctions on utility companies that don't protect their customers, a real levelling up and empowerment of local communities - and laying the foundations for the creation of a modern nation.
A failure to move swiftly and decisively in all these areas will not merely be a lost opportunity – it could cost thousands of lives and cause untold hardship this winter.
ONE OF the more hysterical national newspapers heralded the growing despair with the headline ‘What has become of our country?’
It is not just energy bills, a struggling NHS, sewage on the beaches and a disgracefully absentee Government these last few months.
It is more fundamental than that - the inability of the country and its political leadership to embrace radical change when the current model is not working.
Instead of constantly pointing out the problems, this newspaper has a reviving manifesto that the new Prime Minister - any prime minister should take to heart.
1 ENERGY COST FURLOUGH SCHEME
It worked to safeguard jobs during the pandemic so why should it not be adopted during the energy crisis to save lives and businesses. It could be combined with an education programme to promote energy saving and increased incentives for green energy schemes.
2 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE SERVICES
We may all cherish the NHS but it is time to admit that the current model is bust and look elsewhere for a more creative and participatory long term approach.
3 POLICE
Like the NHS the model is broken. It needs a creative solution making local forces truly accountable - perhaps on an elected sheriff basis; a single national crime division and a single transport police responsible in part for overseeing the efficient running of the road system.
4 MISERY TAX
Responsible citizens should be free from worry about the essential services - utilities, transport and communication. The providers, usually private enterprise, need to be held accountable. There should be zero tolerance for the excuse that poor service and high prices - and windfall profits in circumstances completely devoid of any initiative of the operators - are necessary in order to re-invest.
5 GOVERNMENT
There is too much at national level and not enough locally and regionally. Central Government needs electoral and constitutional reform to slim down.
6 LEVELLING UP
This cannot be achieved by the tokenism of central government which has hitherto twisted arms to get businesses to relocate from the South East. Devolved administrations with energetic local leadership, empowered with incentives including taxation to attract businesses, will do a much better job.
7 CULTURE AND HERITAGE
Successive governments have
dumbed down the nation reinforcing the class system mentality that the serious arts are for the social elite. The TV tax should be scrapped and direct Government funding should support public service arts content.
8 CREATION OF A MODERN NATION
The British deserve leaders that can imagine and deliver a fairer and more equal future. Levelling up is it, but in all its forms - economic, social, cultural and geographical. This will only happen if there is a new structure of government, heavier on expertise and public service and lighter on personality and party infighting. Perhaps that is the only thing that the past turbulent and fumbling years has taught us - personal political ambition is unavoidable but the people and public duty must come first if the nation is to grow strong.
The new Prime Minister should test herself against that measure.