KCC leader Linden Kemkaran gives her view on the government's budget

Watch KCC leader Linden Kemkaran gives her view on the government's budget - KentOnline / KMTV on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Well, I thought Halloween had been and gone, but I think yesterday was a complete horror

00:03show. I think the Chancellor is hopelessly out of her depth. I think this is typical

00:10Labour politics. They think that by splashing loads of taxpayers' cash on public spending,

00:18they will somehow stimulate growth. Anybody, anybody who has spent any time in the real

00:22world, and I mean the real world outside of Westminster, will know that growth only comes

00:28from the private sector. Growth comes when you cut red tape around SMEs, you encourage

00:34people to take risks, you encourage entrepreneurs to pour their own time, money and effort into

00:39making things from the ground up. That budget yesterday was all about punishing people who

00:45actually go out to work and earn money and pay taxes to take that money and give it to

00:50people who are not in work. Also, the illegal migrant situation is just being allowed to

00:57continue, completely unchecked. The government like to boast that they are taking illegal

01:02migrants out of hotels. Great, on paper, where are they putting them? They are putting them

01:06into the private rental sector. That is going to have an even bigger effect on our already

01:12desperate housing crisis in this country. It was, in short, an absolute shower.

01:18But don't you think things like lifting the two-child benefit cap, you know, that's going

01:21to help people who are, you know, in high levels of poverty. And don't you think that could

01:25help sort of alleviate some of the pressures on services for like, maybe perhaps homelessness

01:29or general things across Kent? You don't think some of those proposals could help?

01:34No, I think all that's going to do is really irritate the people like me, who have made the

01:39decision very early on to only have the number of children that I can afford to feed, clothe,

01:46educate, give a decent standard of lifestyle to. There are so many people like me who have

01:53made that very hard choice to have one or maybe two children because you know that's

01:58all you can reasonably afford. Those people are going to be feeling quite annoyed that there

02:03are loads of other people out there who are not taking responsible decisions about managing

02:08the size of their family. Contraception is freely available to everybody in this country.

02:14There is no excuse for having more children than you can afford to bring up. We need to

02:18get real about this. We need to get real. We cannot keep throwing money at people who are

02:23not making the right, the good choices. But, I mean, I don't have the stats to hand,

02:28but as far as I understand, it would lift a lot of people out of poverty, a lot of families.

02:32And also in terms of children, I mean, they don't choose to be born into a certain family,

02:35right? So it's not their fault. That's going to help their families perhaps develop more

02:39of a sort of some solidity in terms of their finances and things like that. Don't you think

02:44that would, is it not unfair, sorry, unfair on the children in this regard?

02:48Of course it's unfair on the children. No child asks to be born. No child asks to be sent

02:53to school without being given breakfast or in a uniform that's not clean. You know, no child

02:58asks for that. You're absolutely right. And no, children should not suffer. But don't you

03:02think it is kinder and more sustainable to look at the root of the problem rather than

03:07just throwing money at it? We need to be asking parents, are you aware of your responsibilities

03:12as a parent? It is your responsibility to get your child up in the morning, feed them breakfast,

03:18get them clothed and get them to school on time. That is parenting 101. You know, that is the basic

03:24duty of a parent. We need to be reminding parents, if you choose to have children,

03:29you are responsible for their welfare, for their upkeep and getting them to school.