Protesters need to accept country has spoken

Councillor Mark Weston, Conservative Party leader, explains why protesters taking to the streets in Bristol must accept the General Election result which has given a mandate for austerity.

Last Saturday saw dozens of protesters take to the streets of Bristol to campaign against further Government austerity measures. Whilst one respects the strength of feeling of many of those who attended this gathering, deficit reduction is not an option that our Chancellor is choosing to embark upon out of ideology; it is a fundamental necessity to ensure our country’s long-term economic prosperity.

I appreciate that there are economists who will take issue with the premise that Governments have to act like households, but the notion of living within our means is something most people can relate to and easily grasp. Although falling, thanks to the efforts of the Coalition, the UK’s budget deficit (the annual excess in what the government spends over the revenue it receives) remains one of the largest in the world.

Personally, I find it morally reprehensible to run-up a huge deficit, and then hand the bill on to our children and grandchildren to pay off. Whilst the SNP and, here in Bristol, the Greens, appear to offer a beguiling alternative, I am afraid their ‘Alice in Wonderland’ policies are not based on any basic understanding of economics.  Does anyone now remember the latter’s flagship policy of a ‘Citizens’ Income’ so comprehensively demolished on the ‘Politics Show’?  No, in the real world we have to be responsible in how taxpayers’ money is spent.

Once the deficit is eliminated a start can be made in reducing the debt mountain overshadowing us all. Only then can the £43 billion currently spent on interest payments alone (to service this debt) fall and politicians can start spending more on those things everyone agrees are desirable such as improving health, education, defence or any number of other worthwhile priorities.

Another rather tired accusation favoured by the anti-austerity movement centres around the entirely spurious claim that, somehow, the General Election result lacks democratic legitimacy. Their argument is that, since ‘only’ 36.9 per cent of the ballots cast were for the Conservative Party, the result shouldn’t count. Proponents of this view then suggest that by changing the voting system, a different result would have occurred.

Sadly, this stance ignores three things. Firstly, in 2011 the British public were asked if they wanted a new voting system – two-thirds voted a resounding no to such a change.

Secondly, elections are won by those who take part. Under our democratic arrangements, most adults have the opportunity to vote, if they choose not to do so then that is up to them. I believe the right not to vote is as important as the decision to exercise that right. However, individuals should not then complain if they don’t like the result.

Thirdly, there are 650 constituencies in this Country in which every voter was asked to support the person they wanted to represent them. In more than half of these contests, a Conservative candidate was chosen. I don’t remember the Left of the political spectrum howling for voting reform after the General Election in 2005 when Tony Blair’s New Labour secured a much larger majority with a little over 35 per cent of the vote.

On election night this year, Neil Kinnock, bizarrely claimed that Labour’s defeat was down to the electorate’s failure to engage with the Party’s message – like it was somehow the voters’ fault Labour lost so catastrophically. This sort of denial hides the greater malaise confronting Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, namely, it wasn’t some flaw in the voters’ thinking, but Labour’s message and the party itself that failed to engage with ordinary people. 

When Ed Miliband refused to acknowledge that the last Labour Government had spent too much he lost the economic credibility, and when you lose this, you lose everything. 

No one likes austerity but I believe the public fundamentally understand and accept the need for it. That is why over half the total votes cast in May’s General Election were for right or centre-right parties. Of course, when even the Labour Party committed itself to a kind of ‘austerity light’ programme, it is plain that there was a clear majority – or overwhelming mandate – for getting spending under control.

Rather than complaining about the results of a contest after it has finished, and demanding a change in the rules because they do not like the outcome, protesters need to accept that the Country has spoken.  More votes were cast for the Conservatives than anyone else and, as a result, that Party has the right to form the Government and deliver on its manifesto commitments.

In a free country such as ours, I am grateful that people have the right to protest.  So long as such demonstrations are peaceful, and respectful of others and property, I will always defend this right, even if I happened to disagree with what they have to say on the matter.