This May marks ten years of Labour in power.
. I can’t imagine that any of us could have imagined during the bleak Thatcher years, that one day our party would have been in Government for three successive terms in office and building the platform for a fourth election victory.
Walking round Erdington the physical changes are easy to spot.
The police and community support officers in your street making you feel safer. The refurbished schools with lower class sizes and the better exam results. And the high street full of shoppers and businesses – thanks to the longest period of economic growth in 200 years.
But it’s not just the new buildings and things you see that have changed. The people of Erdington have changed. No longer are our teenagers in school being told their only career is a life on the dole as their only career opportunity. No longer are some people in Erdington being paid a pittance with fewer rights at work.
I am proud that I am a Labour MP in a Labour Government that has changed Erdington and the UK for the better.
And voting for Labour Budgets year after year that invested in our schools and hospitals makes me feel that all the hard work and late nights down here are worthwhile.
I’m not saying everything is perfect. As a Government we still have a lot to do on things like pensions and making sure our kids have the right skills to deal with a changing world.
But we should reflect on where we are now, and where we were in 1997.
I remember people losing their houses in Erdington because of uncontrolled interest rates and a recession. People waiting years for operations. Lives being wasted because there were no opportunities, no hope.
Britain was on the verge of becoming a second rate nation because of the Tories.
Through your hard work and our policies in Government we have become the strong nation we should be.
Let’s work together to make the next ten years even better for Erdington
