The Labour Party is talking about town centres being “hollowed out” after decades of decline on the high street. Is this the same Labour Party which racketed up business rates, made it more expensive to employ people and all but wiped out that old staple, the Saturday job?
Labour's Economic Record
The same Labour Party that gives a very good impression of thinking that all employers are evil, that wealth creation is to be stamped out, and that is implementing Angela Rayner’s insane employment restrictions that will make the situation even worse? The economic incompetence of these people knows no bounds.
Our PM without a mandate is talking about getting rid of vape and betting shops: marvellous, but what’s he going to replace them with? More charity shops and estate agents?
High Street Decline
Our high streets, exhausted, depressing and unwelcoming, are a symbol of the whole country. And a great deal of this can be laid at the feet of the people currently running the show. It’s no good blaming poor Liz Truss.
My husband and I are lucky: we live near a high street that still boasts a fishmonger, a butcher, a couple of very upmarket delis and some nice dress shops. But that used to be the norm. And even that street has changed over the last few decades: shops have been closing down, never to reopen, and much of that is due to business rates.
Tax and Regulation
Labour is adopting exactly the same approach to the high street as it does to the rest of the economy: if it moves, tax it. And then there’s the issue of all the iffy barber shops and nail salons, manned by people we’re not quite sure who and very possibly involved in money laundering. Who let the people who run them in?
If Andy Burnham really wants to rejuvenate the high street, he should slash taxes and regulations, encourage entrepreneurs rather than penalising them and stop local mayors – he was one until a couple of weeks ago – messing up the traffic lanes so badly that no one can get to the shops, let alone buy anything. But we all know this isn’t going to happen.
Socialist Creed
Burnham is a socialist, the same creed that produced the Soviet Union, a place in which people queued for hours to get to the shops, only to find there was nothing in them. The British people are far too pragmatic to let anything similar happen here. But change at the top simply cannot come too soon.
