The General Election is nearly here and I can't help comparing things today with 2010.
Remember the recession? The rising unemployment? The gloom all around?
In 2010, our annual deficit was £170.8 billion. A frightening amount for our children and grandchildren to pay back.
Our welfare system had sadly bred a something-for-nothing culture that left people better off on benefits than in work.
Our NHS was creaking under the burden of more demand (we are all getting older), and poor management by Whitehall mandarins. Our planning system had become a maze of law that wasn't working for ordinary people.
The scale of the challenge we faced was massive, but we now have a huge amount to celebrate and I think our part of the world is a brighter place.
Thanks to sensible stewardship of our economy, the recession is history, and our economy is growing faster than the EU or the US. We can tell our children that the overdraft has been halved.
More good news: 1,000 jobs have been created every day since the last General Election, and in Staffordshire Moorlands unemployment is down by 68 per cent!!
There may be just 371 people still claiming JSA, but I know they need help, so locally I have made jobs a priority.
My three jobs fairs in Biddulph and Leek, plus export events to help local businesses, and my social media workshop for women entrepreneurs have all, I hope, helped.
I am particularly proud of the local businesses who helped me with my personal campaign that found over 130 new apprenticeships in 100 days – contributing to doubling apprenticeships nationally.
When you go out shopping in the Moorlands today, you will find no gloom but busy, vibrant shops. Sales are up five per cent compared with three per cent nationally.
Great news because retail is our largest local industry, and that's why I ran my Independent Retailer of the Year Competition to champion local shops.
But as well as increasing our income, we need to get to grips with Government spending, and our massive benefit bill is the priority.
I believe that a safety net for the vulnerable is absolutely essential, but the system in 2010 trapped people on benefits, and that can't be right.
It was right to cap benefits so that families receiving support face the same choices as working people about what they can afford. We have also set clear rules in return for help from tax-payers, so if you need help, you will get it, but you also know that you have responsibilities in return.
You won't be surprised to learn that the NHS has been one of the regular topics in my inbox and it is as important to me as to anyone. I want it to be there – and free – for my family.
So I am pleased that day-to-day running of services is now with local doctors (not those mandarins) who know what is best for their patients, and that the NHS budget has been increased by £12.7 billion in this Parliament. But don't forget, you can only have a strong NHS if you have a healthy economy.
And a healthy economy needs room to grow, we do need more houses, but they need to be in the right place and not built at the expense of local communities.
I was proud to vote for the Localism Act and National Planning Policy Framework, which turned 1,000 pages of red tape that only a handful of people understood into 47 pages of simple principles. Both give local people the power to shape their own surroundings.
But where aggressive developers do try to push through inappropriate applications, such as the Gladman proposals in Leek, I will always fight to protect our beautiful countryside for local people.
We have a lot to be proud of in the Moorlands, in North Staffordshire and in the UK, and I have been incredibly privileged to serve as the MP for my home town over the last five years.
I will always speak up for Staffordshire Moorlands – I will do that during this campaign and hope you will give me the chance to do that again in Parliament.
We have banished Labour’s gloom – if we work hard, take responsibility for ourselves and for those who really need help, and if we protect our beautiful countryside, we'll make sure things are even brighter for Staffordshire Moorlands.
If I am re-elected I will do my best to make that future bright by:
- encouraging even more jobs and opportunities in the Moorlands
- working to protect our beautiful land from inappropriate development
- continuing to reform welfare so work is rewarded but those in trouble are protected.
