Post Budget visit by the Daily Politics Show The BBC 2's Daily Politics show visited Lyneham today, while Tony Blair was out and about the rest of the country getting post Budget 2005 reactions and telling everyone what a wonderful budget it was. The Daily Politics outside reporter Giles Dilnot visited the traditional Thursday Coffee Morning in St Michael's Church Hall to get local opinions on what the villagers think of Gordon Brown's ninth and possibly last budget. It is widely anticipated that a Spring General Election is on the cards, and the national press have reported this latest budget as a sweetener for the grey generation. The main enticer hand-outs are to provide free local bus travel and £200 towards Council tax payments. These potential vote grabbers obviously have clauses and do not seem as rosy as first thought. They certainly have not persuaded some of our villagers.
Daily Politics reporter Giles Dilnot speaking to Sam Wright and Cllr Allison Bucknell

Mandy Clarke, a young mother from the village whose husband and father both are currently serving on the RAF base, has highlighted her concern that this budget is a sweetener for the older generation but her main concern is that the Government are penalising those who want to advance their careers by heavily taxing them, and the lazy ones, who know that they are better off on the payouts, are not even encouraged to get back to work. Mandy, 23, has said in concern "She is annoyed that these lazy people just sponge and the hard workers get heavily penalised, what role model does that set?".

The Daily Politics outside broadcast team travel all over the UK and beyond to examine the issues that get you most worked up. It has proved to be a great way of bringing the worries and concerns of ordinary voters to the attention of government ministers. The visit was planned to talk about post budget issues and also another burning issue at Lyneham - the announcement from the Defence Select Committee that the armed forces face "alarming shortfalls" and the current numbers of troops, with more cutbacks, is leaving the serving members overstretched and in capable of meeting modern day conflicts all over the globe.

North Wiltshire's biggest concern is the Government's planned closure of RAF Lyneham by 2012 and the reasoning behind why are they closing the active base, knowing many millions of pounds have been spent on the base and the rest of the forces are at their extreme limits. The severe economic impact and damage to the local community has been calculated at over £75M per annum if the closure goes ahead.

It has been highlighted by many local residents that a little rational thought and attentiveness to what actually has been going on at Lyneham would prove that there is great potential and vision for this base. It is currently a dynamic operational platform, and Lyneham plays a leading role in a tri-service rapid reactive armed force, often first in and last out in all conflicts. Why lose its true value, when it works? The prevalent feeling among the community is that government ministers have ignored the local concerns for the Wiltshire base and have set their heads in the sand, blanketing valid outside concerns.

Local residents had their opportunity to address major points of concern over the alarming shortfalls in the armed forces today. The public accounts committee said that the gap between the arsenal requirements and those available to the Ministry of Defence is between 20% and 38%, depending on how it is measured.

The MPs also criticised mistakes, which saw the MoD pay £259 million for eight US-built Chinook Mark 3 helicopters, which have remained grounded because of technical problems. They branded the Chinook affair "one of the worst examples of equipment procurement that the committee has seen."

In September 2003, we highlighted that the MOD would suffer military shortfalls if they stick to their current agenda and it has been highlighted again today that shortfalls are evident, once more it appears that this is another clear case of MOD ministers not listening to the community.

Mr Sam Wright who lives in the village, a former Hercules pilot who was actively involved in the "Save RAF Lyneham Campaign" two years ago, is seriously concerned over the actions of our Government ministers. He has questioned Labour MP Eric Joyce in the Daily Politics Show studio, " If 'Prudence' is the latest buzz word in Parliament from Mr Brown, why have the government spent multi-millions of pounds on Lyneham if they plan to close the base by 2012?" He highlighted some aspects of the government's major spending programme: They have spent millions on single man barrack blocks and new sergeants mess annex, two new headquarters for flying squadrons, two multi-million pound aircraft simulator buildings, a runway resurfacing programme. He strongly emphasised that in view of this major spend it would only need £39M to make the base capable for the future needs of the military. Mr Wright also questioned "Where is the Prudence in closing this base?".

Labour MP Eric Joyce

North Wiltshire District Councillor Allison Bucknell has also highlighted again that the government continue to ignore people. Speaking from the coffee morning, live to the London studio, she has said, " When these ministers go to the studio they know what they are going to say, they have a speech prepared, and it doesn't matter what we say it is just ignored". The Daily Politics Show then seriously questioned "Why Ignore the people?". We wonder?! Unfortunately we didn't get the answer in Lyneham.