Letter from Parliament - Jim Dobbin MP

Jim Dobbin MP

What an extraordinary turn of events.

David Cameron in his panic speech about the UK economy got it completely wrong for the second time. A couple of months ago he did not understand the difference between deficit and debt and got his figures confused.

Now he misrepresented the views of his own financial watchdog, an independent organisation set up by his own government. He claimed that cuts in public spending did not harm growth and that the Office for Budget Responsibility agreed with him. The chairman of his financial watchdog immediately rebuked this claim and said that they had made it quite clear that austerity measures would damage growth. Exactly what Miliband and Balls have been saying since 2010.

This is further proof that the Coalition have no idea on how to run the U.K. economy. Even Vince Cable has belatedly seen the light and is advocating a stimulus budget.

The Chancellor continues to say there will be no change to Plan A. He will be remembered as the juvenile chancellor who increased poverty for thousands of individuals and families.

1 April is the next key poverty occasion. That is when the benefits cuts will begin to drive up poverty at a time when there are no real job opportunities.

April is also the month that millions of working families have their tax credits cut and 13, 000 millionaires will receive a tax cut of £100,000 including the millionaire cabinet ministers from the Prime Minister down. When the economy is flat-lining, thanks to this governments’ failure, it cannot be right to give millionaires a tax cut and make working families pay more.

Labour will cancel David Cameron’s millionaire tax and introduce a mansion tax. Labour will also reintroduce the 10p tax rate to help working people.

The Coalition bedroom tax is unfair and totally out of touch. This tax will hit families and vulnerable people. The Government are forcing councils to house people with private landlords who charge higher rents. Prices are rising faster than wages, nearly one million young people are out of work, the deficit is going up not down. The Coalition is borrowing £212 billion more than planned and much more than Labour would have required. We simply cannot go another two years of no growth, no jobs and living standards going through the floor.

I chair an All Party Parliamentary Group looking at Involuntary Tranquilliser Addiction, which is a major problem across the globe. There are an estimated 1.5 million people in the UK with this very serious long term addiction to the Benzoates, the Z drugs and other stress related medication. This is not drug misuse. These people are victims of a system of medication which is out of control. People should only be on these drugs for 2-6 weeks.

I am aware of constituents who have been prescribed this medication for 30 years and one individual I know who has been prescribed this medication for 45 years. The result is lost careers and family, serious difficulties with mental health and physical problems.

The All Party Group is negotiating for withdrawal services to be introduced by the new Commissioning and Well Being Boards in each locality. I met with Anna Soubry to seek her support. I am fairly confident that we will soon be tackling this serious addiction problem.

More work has to be done on development of counselling and support services for this group of people as well as education about the careful withdrawal programme necessary for success. The cost to the taxpayer through treatment and the benefit system is massive. Prevention and support is clearly worth pursuing. There are around 4,000 people who are involuntarily addicted to tranquilisers in this constituency.

A comment on the Budget will be in my next article.