Last week was the Conservative Party conference and our new
Prime Minister’s first real chance to lay out her vision for our country.
In her closing speech she presented a vision of a country
that works for everyone and touched on a number of key issues and steps to
achieving this.
It marked a shift in emphasis after six years where we have
had to address the deep financial challenges the country was facing in 2010.
Although there is clearly still work to be done in ensuring our country lives
within its means, Theresa May clearly intendeds to look to the future and the
type of country she wants to build. I welcome this.
The biggest issue facing us as a country is clearly
implementing the decision by the British people to leave the EU. I was pleased
that the Prime Minister sent a clear message that we will respect the
democratically made decision and ignore those who are calling for it to be
rerun, cast aside or fudged. We will be leaving the EU and we now have a
timetable for when this decision will be implemented - in the first part of
next year. This will be followed by a Great Repeal Bill that will legally pave
the way for us to leave the EU and re-establish the sovereignty of the UK
Parliament over all matters that are currently controlled by Brussels.
The PM also made clear that she understood that the
referendum result was not just about leaving the EU. It was a deeper expression
of people’s frustrations and anger at the disconnection people feel to the
political systems, along with the desire for us as a country to take back
control over our own affairs, especially in areas such as immigration.
This will be a lengthy process which will have any number of
twists and bumps in the road. But I believe Theresa May has shown that she gets
it and will deliver on Brexit.
Other highlights from the Prime Minister's speech include an
announcement to continue to reform welfare and the changes to assessments for
ESA as I wrote about last week, reform of corporate governance to ensure all
businesses are run accountably and with long-term interest clearly in mind, strengthening
workers’ rights, bold new education reforms – so that every child has the
chance to go to a good, local school and that they are not held back by where
they live or how much money their parents have and continuing to invest in our
NHS – £10 billion extra over this Parliament, which is only possible because of
the strong economic foundations we have built.
I am proud to be part of the Government that is working to
achieve the Prime Minister’s vision and look forward to continuing to
practically apply it for the good of Cornwall.
As always, my team and I are here to serve the whole
constituency and work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone
needing support. If there is an issue you would like my assistance on then please
contact me on either 01726 829379 or office@stevedouble.org.uk. Additionally, I
hold regular, appointment only, advice surgeries across the constituency. Dates
of these can be found at: www.stevedouble.org.uk/events
