This is my first column of 2026 – so happy new year!
It hasn’t been happy for the Conservatives. Their party is in terminal decline. Two sitting MPs have switched to Reform already. The Tories deserve to be punished for the dreadful mess they created and their utter failure to extend opportunity when in government. No one can name a Tory achievement in office sadly.
One of their hugest mistakes was Brexit; it has damaged the UK economy and our international relationships, hit British firms with higher costs to import and export, and it has left British customers paying more for our shopping.
It is ironic to see Tory MPs join Reform who share culpability for the damage they wrought.
Reform is a party of defects but is doubly untrustworthy as it pretends to be a new vehicle yet they are yesterday’s Tories offering no new policies. An old banger with a spray paint job. Political zombies feasting on the decaying Tory Party.
I’ll break it down: Reform have seven MPs. Four were previously elected as Conservative MPs, and all of them have been members of the Conservative Party (including Farage).
They all backed Truss’ kamikaze ‘mini-Budget’ and would crash and trash the UK economy again given half a chance!
It is no joke. The Reform Wales Leader was found to be taking Russian bribes and I don’t think anyone in Reform would know our national interest even if it bit them on the backside.
Thankfully, the NHS did have a good start to 2026 though! Here in Southwark, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust have seen waiting lists fall by over 33,000. Congratulations to the local team overseeing this success.
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But these results are not a coincidence. They have been achieved through investment and modernisation under Labour’s national stewardship. We are the party of the NHS – building it post-war, saving it in 1997 and fixing it again today.
Across the country, in November NHS waiting lists fell by 86,000. This is the second biggest drop in waiting lists in 15 years!
Since our Labour Government came into power, waiting lists are down by 312,000. I hope local people are feeling the benefit but please contact me if you live in
Bermondsey and Old Southwark and would like me to raise waiting times to see a GP or hospital consultant: [email protected].
London has also had a fab start to 2026 – and not just the amazing New Year fireworks!
Crime statistics show London is now one of the safest cities on the planet. Of course, there are challenges and the Met need to tackle mobile phone thefts in particular, plus companies like Apple need to utilise existing technology to disable stolen phones.
But Time Out and TripAdvisor have both declared London the ‘best city of 2026’ already! Londoners should take pride in the early accolades this year and beware those who attack our wonderful home.
Mr Cole seems to have buried his head in the sand and ignored the fact that public support for Labour has collapsed across the country with many polls showing less voting intention for Labour than Tory. There is a widespread and deep rejection of the two party pass the parcel system that seems in a lot of people’s eyes to have let this country down on so many fronts.
Very Sadly, despite the mess the Tories created through indecision, the current Labour administration has proved to be a lot worse that anyone could have imagined. Destroying the livelihoods of masses of the people right left and centre, for ideological hate reasons- taking the country to basket case level and veering to bankruptcy- people are having to leave the country to survive. Without the wealth creators the country is doomed, and Labour seems hell bent on chasing them all away to get virtue signalling headlines. It is so sad! I love this country but we are also planning to leave as it is becoming too much like an unpleasant communist state, even welcoming what is likely to become the European Chinese spy and (God knows what else with those dungeons they are planning) centre of Europe to our capital city. Total madness. Democratic refugees from Hong Kong will no longer be safe here. And we have not started on giving away our sovereign territories without a referendum! The Chagos Islands do not belong to the government who are the interim caretakers while they are in power. They islands belong to the King and country- i.e. to the people. Without a referendum, they have no right to be giving it away- Labour has proved to not have a clue how to run a country. People should not be allowed to stand for Parliament without having had a min of 5 years working in normal jobs to know what it means to work. Shameful.
Neil Coyle has been adequately described by your previous commentators.