Stratford District Council leader attacks calibre of MPs

The leader of Stratford District Council has slated the standard of Westminster politics, adding that he hopes the calibre of MPs improves in time to deal with what he predicts will be an ‘unbelievably challenging situation’.

Speaking at this week’s [MON] full council meeting, Cllr Tony Jefferson (Con, Welcombe) also questioned whether some Government policies relating to climate change had been thought through.

He said: “My view is that politics in the UK has been on a downward slide for a long, long time. I think it is very unfortunate that that has happened and I think that if I’m being brutally honest then an awful lot of it is down to the calibre of people who are selected to become members of parliament.”

Cllr Jefferson was answering a question from Cllr Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester Town) who asked if he agreed with the views of Sir John Major on the state of politics in Westminster which had led to the current mistrust in politics.

He went on: “I think we are facing a particular set of problems now in a world that is growing increasingly complex and increasingly fraught.

“I think it is going to be an interesting challenge for all politicians in Westminster to get their act together to deal with what is going to be an unbelievably challenging situation for many of our citizens. One of the things that is very clear is that we are all going to be poorer and that will cause a significant challenge because it is not somewhere we have been for a long time.

“Given the uncertainty and the fraughtness of the situation I can only hope that the calibre of politics and politicians improves somewhat.”

And he went on to answer a question from Cllr John Fielding (Con, Red Horse) relating to Government initiatives to tackle climate change and people’s ability to put them into practice.

Cllr Jefferson said: “There have been a lot of policy pronouncements on climate change. I do not think that the implications from an awful lot of those policies and how they will work on the ground have been thought through and I think the reality is that when we start to look at the practical consequences of implementing them I expect there will be a need to revisit and review, particularly in terms of the timescales.

“There is a real challenge because emissions have to be tackled rapidly but at the moment I don’t think people are putting these together to create a way through that actually delivers what we want in cutting emissions and yet enables people to do what they need to do.”