Oliver Letwin Visits Wyre Forest

Key Local Representatives of Public Services Meet With Conservative Policy Chief


The Right Honourable Oliver Letwin MP, Conservative Shadow Cabinet member and Head of Conservative Policy Review, last night visited Wyre Forest to meet with local representatives of core public services.

Mr Letwin was a guest of Wyre Forest Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman Mark Garnier and was in Kidderminster to hear the views of interested local parties – views that will crucially be taken into account when the Conservative Party finalises its policies ahead of the next general election.

With the Conservative Party now consistently 6% to 10% ahead of the deeply troubled Labour Government in opinion polls, it is entirely probable that the views put forward at the meeting will be included in implemented national policy.

The meeting discussed a top down approach, as opposed to minutiae, and the overriding message from all concerned was that people who work in the public sector want, more than anything else, stability. In order for public sector workers to be able to deliver their services, they want an end to unwelcome re-organisations and unsettling initiatives, and a period of stability to let re-organisations to ‘bed down’. Moreover, in a system that is now dominated by targets and confusing organisation, a clarity of who the customer actually is is essential. Finaly people asked for both locally focused services and for fairness in delivery.

Comenting, Oliver Letwin said; “I am very grateful to Mark for bringing me to Wyre Forest. What I can assure people is that we will not simply change things as sson as we become the government. Our policy review process is extensive and it is thorough and my visit to Wyre Forest is important because I need to see what the views are of people over the whole country.”

Mark Garnier added: “It is very important indeed for Wyre Forest to have its voice in Westminster. Although we have a very hard working MP, because of the nature of politics and the party system, national policy is not formulated by independent MPs. It is absolutely crucial that Wyre Forest gets its voice heard in the policy making debate and not just when Parliament votes. Wyre Forest was heard loud and clear in 2001, but since then it has been off the main radar screen politically. I want Wyre Forest to be heard now and it is my job to make sure Wyre Forest’s interests are best served by the party who will probably form the next government. That is why I will be bringing more of our policy makers to Wyre Forest to hear what people want from their next Government.”