An open letter to my MP, Clive Lewis

 Dear Clive,

Whilst looking down the list of MP's who voted against the government on the Welfare Bill I was not surprised to see your name on the list. As time has gone on since you were first chosen as the candidate for Norwich South and elected to parliament you have somehow become more and more irrelevant. It seems that you have drifted into taking positions which are more to do with posturing than with having any real effect.Perhaps I should have realised this early on when I attended an event shortly after your selection when you gave a speech which you devoted to attacking the Blair government. At no point did you offer any praise for the good things that goveenment had achieved. This is even more curious given your recent support for the Winter Fuel Payments and programme started during that governmet. Surely one role of Labour MPs is to promote the good things that the Labout party and government are promoting. Recent examples are the changes to employment law, banning  no fault evictions, VAT on private echools. All good actions which MPs should be crowing about on whatever platforms they choose to use.

What the Labour government appears to have lacked is any imagination and careful planning for the legislation they hope to bring forward. Perhaps this stems from the Corbyn era which was more concerned with infighting and taking left-wing positions than thinking seriously about long-term issues. Details of the  actual legislation required and how to handle the inevitable media uproar do not seem to have been thought through.  

There have been two issues which have led to much soul searching amongst Labour MPs and Labour supporters. Both have the difficulty of taking away something people have and have come to see as a right. (Note this phenomenon occurred with both non-dom status and exemptions from inheritance tax for farmers.) The first has been the Winter Fuel Payment which needed to be reduced. The sensible way would have been to admit that it is just an increase in the state pension. Once you have done that it becomes much easier to deal with. To preserve the fiction that this is to do with winter fuel costs, make the extra payable in three instalments paid during the months of December, January and February. Make it more generous by giving it to all state pensioners whether they share accomodaton or not.  In current terms make it £75 for each month. Since some people receive their pensions weekly and some might get 4 payments in that three months, the extra payment would be paid in the first payment in those months. Finally, how to pay for this? As this would be part of the state pension, it would automatically be eligible for income tax. 

The other controversion decision is the continuing argument about personal independent payments and the rising cost of in work benefits. One way to alleviate some of these problems might involve doing more to encourage employers to employ people with some levels of disability. This especially true for small companies who would find it difficult to cope with people who cannot come into work reliably. Having an employee who every so often has to have three or four days off work, especially at short notice can be difficult. It also puts the other employees in a difficult position who may end up carrying a further burden during those periods. There can also be added costs for the employer in both sickeness pay and overtime payments to cover for the lost time. One solution might be to cover those costs for employees who have acknowledged health issues. Perhaps any cost savings caused by cuts could be used for this and thus get those less severely handicapped back into work.   This would need to be carefully monitored by the DWP.