Does ANYTHING work properly?

For all of our political lives you could depend on the Tories making three claims. They were the party of law and order, defence and governing competence.

No longer!

We recently covered the state of the justice system after years of expenditure cuts ( see Odd Priorities from the government - Babergh Liberal Democrats (southsuffolklibdems.org.uk))

At the weekend the House of Commons defence committee reported that the “hollowing out” of the armed forces since 2010 had undermined the UK’s war fighting resilience, and the army would exhaust its capabilities “after the first couple of months” in a peer-on-peer war. As if to reinforce the point it was announced that plans for the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to lead the biggest NATO exercise for some time had been cancelled at the last minute after an issue with a propeller shaft was spotted during final checks.

Arguably the Tory claims to competence in government have long been shredded by the antics of Mt Johnson and the budget of Liz Truss but the record of making promises without a plan to deliver has continued on under Mr Sunak

Earlier this week he admitted in a TV interview that he had failed to reduce NHS waiting lists as he promised whilst we also had Education Secretary Gillian Keegan telling us that she cannot guarantee that everyone eligible for 15 hours free childcare from September this year will be able to get a place, a promise made a year ago.

The Prime Minister is hanging on in power but it is hard to understand why.

In our everyday lives we continually experience public services that just don't work as we want despite the efforts of those working to provide them. Lack of investment over the past decade is a major cause and no amount of promises and plans can do anything much to change the situation in the next 12 months.

For the good of the country it is time to stand aside and let others have a chance to rectify what is a continuing failure to deliver basic services to us all