Visibility inspires

Aug 4 2008 by Jim Hancock, Liverpool Daily Post

COULD the Conservatives soon be back on Liverpool City Council? This reverie crossed my mind last week when I met two of the last Conservative councillors in the city before The Great Extinction in the early nineties.

Also present were a whole clutch of young Tories who looked eminently electable, in contrast to the geeky Monday Club weirdos who were all that was left of the youth wing of the party in the immediate aftermath of 1997.

They had been brought together by the energetic Shadow Minister for Merseyside Chris Grayling. Grayling’s main job is Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. When these dual appointments are made, there is often evidence that one of them is a token appointment, getting little attention.

But Grayling is highly visible on Merseyside, and while this alone won’t get the Tories back on the city council, it is an encouragement to the young aspirants who were in nappies when Maggie’s policies wreaked havoc on the local economy. What they need is a by-election in a winnable Liverpool ward. Even one Tory would make life interesting at the Town Hall, with its delicate political balance. Watch this space.

Grayling’s main aspiration is a Conservative government at Westminster. He was realistic enough to point out to me last week that, while Labour’s majority would disappear with the loss of 30-odd seats, the Tories need 130 gains for an overall lead of one.

One of the main issues that the Tories – and the Labour Government for that matter – seem determined to tackle is the 2.6m people on incapacity benefit. This is a particular problem on Merseyside.

By luck last Tuesday, I had the opportunity in the space of a few hours to hear both the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell, and his shadow, Mr Grayling, speak on this subject. My conclusion is that, while those with genuine incapacities should have nothing to fear, malingerers will have nowhere to hide from either a Tory or Labour government.

Not that the politicians should be too sanctimonious about this. Both parties, when in office, have found it convenient to keep the unemployment figures down by putting people on incapacity benefit instead.

Grayling observes Liverpool has areas of prosperity right next to neighbourhoods of poverty with people trapped in a dependency culture. He claims that, although £3.6bn has been spent on the New Deal, youth unemployment is actually higher than 1997.

Grayling promises a programme of quality apprenticeships; targeting welfare-to-work spending to independent organisations; and mandatory community work.

And from Mr Purnell I heard a plan to take a million people off incapacity benefit in the next seven years. Work was the best route out of poverty and ill health, he said. When I suggested this sounded a bit harsh coming from a Labour Minister, he retorted that it was harsher to leave people out of work.