Rochdale is badly prepared for a recession under the Lib Dems

Posted By: Ibrar Khan
Date Posted: 17/11/2008

As we enter what looks set to be a very turbulent economic storm, it is important that all local politicians step up to the plate and do everything they can to help protect jobs in Rochdale and get our economy moving.

At a national level, I am very encouraged by Gordon Brown’s efforts to get governments around the world to coordinate tax and spending policies to shore up a slowing world economy.

But here in Rochdale I am not surprised that our MP has failed to offer any positive solutions and has quickly retreated to his preferred comfort zone of blaming everyone else and doing nothing himself.

Earlier this week he responded in typical fashion to news that nearly 1,000 people have joined the job queue in Rochdale in the last 12 months by passing the blame elsewhere and saying the “government needs to wake up”.

Of course, there is no better example of George Orwell’s definition of political language being an attempt “to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” then Paul Rowen in full flow. His latest pass-the-buck explanation really does make a mockery of the fact that the Lib Dems run Rochdale and make all sorts of decisions that affect our economy and our town's ability to create and, indeed, keep jobs.

Our MP says that Rochdale’s cabinet member for finance has assured him that the Council is doing everything it can to secure people’s jobs. Yet he fails to give one single example of what the council is doing. This idle boast is so far from the truth I would like to highlight just what the council has failed to do to help businesses in Rochdale.

How exactly can the fact that Rochdale Council has overseen the collapse of town centre regeneration plans, which have cost the tax payer over £100,000, represent them doing everything they can to save jobs? Similarly, how can the Council claim that cutting support services to local businesses and having the lowest number of business start-ups in Greater Manchester demonstrates any commitment on their part to helping our economy grow?

The truth is that the Lib Dems have a terrible record in keeping jobs. Our Council refused to let Carcraft, one of the town’s biggest employers, move their operation to Kingsway, effectively making sure that job losses followed. And Rochdale Development Agency trained hundreds of people earlier this year for supposed catering jobs that came to nothing after the Village Hotel pulled out of any deal to come to Rochdale.

When Falinge made the national headlines for having high records of unemployment earlier this year, what did our MP do? He told the Daily Express that it was the fault of Polish workers and invited GMTV to come and do a hatchet job, further demoralising our town.

I could go on – but the fact remains that time after time Rochdale Council and our MP, Paul Rowen, have proved themselves to be terrible stewards of our economy. They have done next to nothing to help our economy grow. In fact, they have left our town the worst prepared of any metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester to weather the recession.

The Lib Dems will do everything they can to pin the blame elsewhere. But the people of Rochdale will not be easily fooled by their weasel words and desperate spinning.