Dear David,
As I write this letter,
the Conservatives are on course to win a slender majority in the House of
Commons. And with that, you will be able to form the next UK government. Boris Johnson the new Conservative Member of
Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip says "The people of Britain,
after a long and exhausting campaign, have finally spoken. I don't think we
need any fancy constitutional expert to tell us what they are trying to say."
When Labour was voted
out of government, they left the country in an economic mess. And with a lot of
trepidation, we decided that major decisions then, to put Britain PL back in
the black could not be left to one party. That was why we voted in a hung
parliament. Now, the Conservatives may form a slender majority. With that, Mr.
Cameron, BRITAIN EXPECTS!!
 |
| The Rt Hon David Cameron MP. |
On the Foreign affairs
front, the public is not that enameled by the European Union machine. But that
does not mean that we want to be completely out. We want to be in Europe but
not run by Europe. Many times we have seen Brussels eyeing our financial
Capital, The City of London, wanting to meddle in its affairs. This must not be
allowed to happen.
There is the
universally hated Human rights laws that come from the EU which always seem to favor
perpetrators of crime. We ask that that it is replaced by a Bill of Rights as
soon as possible so that The High Court in London has the final say on our
laws. Governing the United Kingdom should primarily be done by Westminster. Not
by some pen pushers in Brussels.
Of course we need
Europe as one of our major trading partners but instinctively we look at the US
as our strongest ally. The special relationship between the two countries needs
to be strengthened but also as equal partners. As evidenced recently, this
partnership has been seen as dominated by the US. London must be able to stand up to Washington
on matters of principle and not be seen as a poodle. Our ties with the far east
especially China must be strengthened. Of course there is the constant niggle
of perceived abuse of human rights in China. We must be able to inform our
Chinese partners of our concerns without the fear of losing trade with Beijing.
Emerging markets like
the BRIC countries are quickly catching up with the UK. Policies must be put in
place where British competitiveness is paramount. The days are quickly coming when
the "Made in Britain" mark is quickly disappearing. What happened to
the manufacturing sector? We have industrial wastelands in the midlands and the
north east. We need to stop wringing our hands and stop looking back at what
was and start making stuff.
On defense, Trident
should never be negotiable. The defense of our islands and our interests abroad
must not have a price on it. That does not mean that we go and waste tax payers
money on other things that do not matter. The UK armed forces are being cut
back yet we are seeing an increasingly unstable world, from a newly intransigent
Russia, to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. Promises have been made to
transform the armed forces to be able to fit in with the 21st Century. But that
should not mean that we completely forget that we could face a major threat on
our eastern flank in Europe. Newly
joined states in NATO must be protected. Their security is in our interest.
Back on the domestic
front, The Conservatives must promote personal responsibility. The days of the
"nanny state" must be abandoned. We have had a benefits system which
has looked after people from cradle to the grave. The people who designed this
system thought of it as a safety net; whereby if one fell on hard times, the
state would step in to help them until they got back on their feet. However, we
now have a situation where many people in communities across the country have
chosen this as a way of life. This in not right. We have people who are feeling
aggrieved at the fact that where they go out and work hard for their money,
others feel entitled to benefits, choosing instead to stay at home. But also
this must go hand in hand where we have opportunities for jobs created for
local people. In my home town, Stoke On Trent, we have areas that are blighted
by poverty and it seems like the government is not putting in as much effort to
lift these areas out of this poverty. Many people are trapped in a cycle of
debt where they are borrowing to service debt, a situation that cannot be
sustained.
Our inner cities from
Birmingham, Bradford to Bristol are filled with disaffected youth. In the past,
these were mainly from immigrant communities but now we also have others from
white backgrounds joining the lists. This is a generation that is being lost. A
Conservative government must see this situation reversed where all people
regardless of color or background have the same crack at being employed.
Britain is still broken
and it is up to you to see that it is mended. The past Labour government put
policies in place like multiculturalism. That was a failure. In Britain all societies
must be integrated of course with the system mindful of our backgrounds. But we
have areas where people of other beliefs or color cannot go, jobs and
opportunities which are seen to reserved for a few and the like, we are all
pulling in different directions.
On the NHS, the budget
on that must remain ring fenced. NHS services must be free at the point of delivery
for all who are entitled to them. We have spent billions of dollars on computer
systems that have barely worked. Money needs to be spent on front-line services,
let us let doctors do their jobs as should teachers and policemen without being
bogged down in red tape.
Please, please govern
the UK for all British people and make sure that your government puts the
"Great" back in "Britain"
Arthur Katabalwa.
The
writer is lifelong Conservative party supporter and is a British-Ugandan
citizen currently living and working in Uganda as a journalist.
mwenky99@gmail.com
