Opinion: Labour has failed again

​A time when Britain’s finances were left crippled after 13 years of Labour.

These words, left for his successor, were probably at the time meant to be a semi-joke, maybe even a little in jest. But the country’s finances are no joke.

Just this week we have seen what happens when Labour controls the purse strings. They have bankrupted the second biggest city in the UK and the largest local authority in Europe. This means they now can’t provide any services at all - other than those they have to by law.

Services that everyone - particularly the vulnerable - rely on. This is a disaster for the 1.1 million people of Birmingham. The Conservative Government will have to intervene because Labour have once again shown they can’t be trusted.

These are the same people who splashed thousands on renaming streets to be more ‘inclusive’. Patronising names like Diversity Grove and Destiny Road.

Some in Labour argued a few years ago that we should do the same in Peterborough with iconic streets like Gladstone Street. The simple fact is Labour has failed yet again.

Under responsible Conservative leadership in Peterborough we have turned a corner, balanced the budget and done so whilst maintaining a good standard of public services.

The same cannot be said about Lib Dem ran South Cambridgeshire who are trialling a four-day working week.

A council’s foremost responsibility is to ensure that residents get value for money and that taxpayers money is spent in a responsible and productive way. Removing 20 percent of work force capacity every week is not responsible.

The council claim this cuts costs and increases productivity, but it was recently revealed that Cambridge University academics allowed their assessment of this trial to be edited, by none other than the council themselves!

They secretly made changes to an early draft of the document to try and make it more positive. This is astounding. If their revolutionary four-day working week is the amazing success they claim it to be, why would they need to make changes to an ‘impartial’ review of it?

The reality is it simply should not be happening. It’s effectively an experiment using hard working taxpayers money and they know it.

If private companies want to trial these sorts of things by all means they have the freedom to do so using their own money. But taxpayers in South Cambridge deserve better, just like those in Birmingham.

Labour and the Lib Dems have proven themselves to be incapable of governing effectively. Bankrupting local councils and conducting ludicrous experiments. Then editing a sham review to cover up its failures.

If somehow a disaster coalition of Labour, Liberals and Greens were to take over at the Peterborough Town Hall, I would dread to think what they would do with hard working Peterborough people’s money. Don’t be fooled.

Only by electing hard working Conservative councillors, can we prevent Peterborough going the same way as Birmingham.