Westcountry has been brushed aside over the past decade
        
Brussels, 10th May 2007 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair will not be missed in the Westcountry and rural England thanks to his legacy of neglect for the region, Conservative south west MEP and Chairman of the European Parliament's agriculture committee, Neil Parish said today.
        
He said Prime Minister Blair has left the region with soaring Council tax bills, an agriculture industry that has been battered from pillar to post, and poor infrastructure.
        
Across the UK, violent crime has more than doubled since 1997. The £5 billion a year raid on pension funds has caused many young people to face hardship in the future. Taxes have risen by £1,300 per family and almost half of all 11 year-olds cannot read, write and add up properly.
        
He said:
        
"This government wrote off the south west and rural vote a long time ago, and we have been facing the consequences ever since.
        
"Rural areas like the south west have suffered enormously under Blair's stewardship as a result of poor handling of the foot and mouth outbreak, the farcical way Margaret Beckett introduced the single farm payment, and the massive cuts the government tried to make to farmer incomes under voluntary modulation.
        
"The only time the government committed to rural affairs in the Commons was when it recklessly pushed through a ban on hunting.
        
"It is not just farming that has suffered: the entire rural way of life has been steadily undermined. Local post offices, rural public transport, affordable housing and provision of education services have all declined under Blair's watch.
        
"And our cities have missed out. The gap between rich and poor is increasing despite all the public money being pumped into government schemes, and local government grants have been manipulated to send more money to Labour's northern heartlands.

"I would like to say Tony Blair will not be missed in the Westcountry, but when we think of what is likely to follow him, I wouldn't be so sure."