Letter from Parliament - Jim Dobbin MP

As I begin this article at home the rain is lashing against the window, a far cry from last week when I was on a family holiday in Normandy. We had a lovely week in a large old house not far from Falaise. The weather was good for most of the week and I enjoyed no newspapers, no mail and no telephones. We visited the Bayeux Tapestry and the war graves and took a trip to Mont St Michel. On returning to the constituency office it took over two hours to open the mail and it was back to the real world.

The real world does not seem to resonate with our Con/Dem leadership. Cameron is pretending he’s middle class and lectures middle class families for using Sure Starts, suggesting that they should not elbow poorer families out of the way. I can’t stop laughing at the unbelievable nerve of the man. Here we have a multi-millionaire, educated at Eton, a relative of Royalty, married to the daughter of a Baronet, pretending he is middle class. What planet does he live on?

Then there is the other privately educated millionaire Clegg fumbling and stumbling his way around the country lecturing us on social mobility. When the captain’s away the corporal will play. Their blame game is clever, blame our financial problems on the public sector, blame the elderly, blame those on benefits and blame the poor for all our ills. Ignore the financial market, the greedy bankers and the non domicile tax evaders. These are the ones who should be under scrutiny. Mark my words; come next year the majority of my constituents will regret putting this bunch of financial juveniles into Government. As unemployment rises and services are cut the cry will be for help. Clegg has already reneged on VAT rises, why should he not renege on Winter Fuel Allowance, Child Benefits, Housing Benefits, free school meals, free school milk and fruit and worse still, free bus passes. It’s all in a day’s work for a Con/Dem politician these days.

I closed my constituency office until 30 August for redecorating but urgent casework will still be dealt with. I was sorry to miss the “Feel Good Festival” because of the holiday but from all reports it seems to have been a fantastic success. The town needs an uplift at the moment and it’s great to see young and old get involved. Well done to the local community for supporting this venture.

I attended the presentation to Dunphy Combustion Ltd of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise by Lord Lieutenant on behalf of Her Majesty, The Queen. Managing Director Malcolm Dunphy has contributed a lifetime to manufacturing. His company is a world leader and congratulations must go to him and to all his employees for maintaining their entrepreneurship over many years. He is an example to all and greatly deserves this honour.