Letter from Parliament - Jim Dobbin MP

Jim Dobbin MP

The three Party Conferences are now over. There’s no point referring to the Liberal Democratic Conference because Nick Clegg and his party are now pretty well finished.

The two main contenders for Prime Minister after 2015, Ed Miliband and David Cameron, as expected spoke in support of their political beliefs. Class was the defining argument from both. Ed Miliband talked about his state school education and who he was in an impressive 70 minute speech without notes. Delegates afterwards were impressed with his stance. I thought he gave the middle and working classes room for hope in a future Labour Government. His theme, One Nation, hit the right political chords and he certainly united our party and instilled a confidence that has been missing. I have watched Ed develop his leadership strategy over the past twelve months. He is building a good strong team and we shall see the detail of a strong programme over the next twelve months.

Mr Cameron also was fighting to unite his party which has been stretched and divided since 2010. Class was at the centre of his contribution. His theme on the poor and lower classes was for them to aspire to his privately educated, stiff upper lip brigade. It’s a pity that he has created a two-nation country with his cuts to health, education, the welfare state and increased unemployment and his attack on disability and employee workers’ rights.

Rochdale Council has had some adverse publicity recently. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate them for having the vision to get all the schools in the ‘Building Schools for Futures’ programme through that process before the Government pulled the plug on Labour’s ‘Creative School Renewal’ programme. You will see a number of existing school buildings upgraded and renewed in the coming months - well done.

I’ve been busy around the constituency during this recess which ended on Monday (15 October) this week.

I can’t wait to see how much more the ‘well off’ are going to benefit under Osborne’s next proposals and we’ll sadly learn how many more local people will lose their jobs or homes or both.