Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury Philip Hammond visited Stourport yesterday to meet with local businesses. The event was a networking lunch organised by the Hereford and Worcester Chamber of Commerce and kindly hosted by Thomas Vale at their educational facilities in Worcester Road Stourport. 35 people attended the event
With the UK economy looking set to slip into recession and the banking industry paralysed by the credit crunch, Philip Hammond's visit could not have come at a more appropriate time. With Conservatives recently showing a 16 point lead in opinion polls, the visit gave Wyre Forest businesses an opportunity to put their point of views to the heart of the Conservative policy making machine.
Philip discussed many issues regarding how find ourselves in the current situation and the possibilities for working through it. Importantly, he discussed how a Conservative Government would be different.
"Our one Golden Rule for the economy," said Philip, "is that a Conservative Government will share the proceeds of growth between investment into public services and tax cuts. This country has an unsustainable position in the economy right now, with growth financed by excessive public expenditure. But the Government cannot keep the rate of public spending going and it is set to slow dramatically this year. Meanwhile, the spending boom that we have seen has resulted in a staggering £1.4 trillion of household debt. This has been taken on as people feel richer because of house price inflation, but that has come to an end and house prices are going down. Meanwhile the Government is borrowing four times as much as Gordon Brown promised he would."
Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest's Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman and an investment banker of 20 year's experience, added: "What everyone has been suspecting for years has come to be widely accepted: Gordon Brown was a terrible Chancellor and a worse Prime Minister. His five Golden Rules for running the economy have turned out to be just a fig leaf for incompetence. Allowing a consumer boom to run out of control based on unsustainable house price inflation is not the act of someone who claims prudence. The fact is, the vast majority of the country wakes up at 3.00 AM with a start and a cold sweat and worries about their mortgage, their credit card debts and their jobs. That is Gordon Brown's legacy. As Lord Desai said recently, Gordon Brown is there make Tony Blair look good."