Joined up thinking

I say this because daily there are pronouncements that seem to contradict earlier missives, giving the hallmark of rules made by inexperienced people on the spur of the moment. Here are a few examples, and I am sure many readers could easily add to this list;

* Minister wants double yellow lines to mean ‘10 minutes grace’ when experiences along Commercial Road indicate that not enforcing the law is causing chaos.

* Mrs Thatcher encouraged out of town shopping centres and now all over the country town centres are dying due to lack of customers.

* Mr Cameron championed fixed term parliaments but now he is under pressure to scrap his own law.

On a more serious level, the workings of this Tory government will, in my view, cause a multitude of ‘unforeseen circumstances’ in the future. Take house building and pensions for example.

During this government we have witnessed house building fall to its lowest since the 1920s. People are either forced out by price or can’t raise the deposit for a mortgage. This is now causing the housing benefits bill to balloon.

Now if one looks at the choice we are now to enjoy regarding pension pots, it seems obvious to me that the bank of mum and dad will use their pensions to give their offspring a leg up on the housing ladder. But what happens when the pot runs dry? The good old tax payer will supplement people’s pensions.

You carried a story about cuts to the fire-fighter’s budget and the same could be said of the police too. If one thinks about the council tax freeze fiasco then it is plainly obvious that no matter how much more I have in my pocket as a consequence of the freeze, I can’t choose to buy extra law and order nor firemen.

This Conservative government has been party to some of the biggest confidence tricks played on the British people by their adherence to dogma worked out on the back of a matchbox without any real joined up thought as to its consequences.

Bob Pixton Abney Moor, Swindon