Lee Scott

Conservative Party | Ilford North

View from the House

This article appeared in the Ilford Recorder

9th October 2009

There was a fabulous atmosphere at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Delegates were discussing new ideas with enthusiasm and passion. What was entirely lacking was any sense of over confidence or complacency. Conservatives know that the result of the next general election still hangs in the balance and that we need to campaign long and hard to get our message over. Labour may be unpopular but in many marginal constituencies they are not our main challenger. At conference I talked with Conservative candidates who will be standing in constituencies in Northern Ireland who will not even have a Labour opponent.

I spoke at a fringe meeting about the very great importance of the quality of heath care in the NHS. I am shocked and saddened by the recent survey that Britain has fallen to fourteenth place in the league table of European nations for heath care quality. It is not that all of those higher up the league spend more money, for most it is that they spend it judiciously.

The Conservatives have announced that, if elected to government, we will ring fence the funding of the NHS. We want to be able to do more with this cash to bring better and faster treatment for patients. We have set out plans to reduce the cost of NHS bureaucracy by a third from £4.5 billion to £3 billion a year by 2013/14. By slashing red tape, removing pointless targets, devolving decision making closer to patients, substantial sums of money will be saved. Our clear aim is to shift NHS funds from administration to the work of doctors and nurses on the frontline.

The Conservatives left Manchester having set out for the British people the direction we want to take our nation. We will cut big government back and bring back localism. We will reduce the enormous size of our national debt. There will be support for families and those on benefit must not be punished financially when they get a job. Entrepreneurs will be encouraged not tied up in red tape. Working together we can overcome the challenges ahead.