Opinion: Now time for Boris to prove his worth

Grant Prior 5 years ago
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Boris Johnson has won the battle of the ‘least worst’ parties to secure a surprisingly large majority Conservative government.

But the country is hardly getting out the bunting after an underwhelming election campaign from all sides.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s brand of socialism has now lost twice at the ballot box and surely it is time for the party to take another tack if they actually want to win power.

Being battered by the Tories in their current state takes some doing.

Obviously Brexit played a huge role in the voting.

But Corbyn and his team managed to scare off business in their zeal to fund spending promises by “bashing the billionaires”.

Not every business person is a superyacht owner.

Small and medium sized enterprises are the backbone of this country so threatening them with rampant corporation and dividend tax rises was electoral suicide.

Corbyn’s most positive legacy may well be to end austerity by proxy.

Labour’s mega-spending manifesto prompted the Tories to promise an end to years of cuts.

Now they must follow through with that to end the national scandal of rough sleeping, food banks and under-funded public services.

The Prime Minister has also made a great play of investing in infrastructure.

For those words not to ring hollow HS2 and the expansion of Heathrow must be green-lighted within days.

Construction will hope for a period of stability and increased public spending as the economy braces itself for the full impact of Brexit.

Hopefully our exit from the EU will be with a less-damaging deal rather than the nuclear no-deal option.

The country voted against Jeremy Corbyn because he was too left wing.

The fear is Boris Johnson may be too right wing if he continues to pander to the rabid flank of his party.

Let’s hope both sides move to the middle in the coming years for the sake of construction and the country.

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