Had a very good canvas this evening down Raeburn Avenue. Very solid support and a good swing from both the other parties to us. Then off to another hustings at Kingston URC – CND/Peace Council but with environmental groups riding piggyback.

Lots of questions around international aid, poverty and Iraq. All the candidates were there this evening and this made covering much ground quite difficult. A bit sad we could not have spent more time on environmental issues because although we had one question on global warming I do believe that areas such as recycling are a vital issue. Still no time to cover that and the meeting ended at about 9.45pm.

Even more worried about Nick, the Labour candidate. There seems to be little that he agrees with his own party on. There were times I thought he was even to the left of the candidate from the Socialist Workers Party. Not complaining, very refreshing and makes it easier for me to put a distinct appeal between Conservatives and Labour.

Quick drink in the Druid’s Head and then home for something to eat.

Had a good day on the trail today. Spent much of it in Old Malden canvassing and then on to a hustings meeting with Churches Together in New Malden. The Lib Dem candidate did not turn up as he preferred the comfort of Channel 4 news rather meeting the electors in New Malden. He sent Baroness Hamwee as a sub.

The meeting went well and not surprisingly there was a good degree of concentration on ethical questions around euthanasia and abortion as well as interest in world debt, poverty and aid.

Have to say that Nick Parrot, the Labour candidate, is turning out to be refreshingly “Old Labour” in both his outlook on life and thinking.
The Baroness managed to walk into a few brick walls when she decided to laud the Lib Dem policy of not charging for personal care, despite the fact that in Kingston the Lib Dems, supported by their candidate, have raised personal care charges by 300% and introduced means testing.

What a day! Over the weekend a traveller encampment was moved off a Council site and ended up on NHS land in Surbiton. The local residents were not very happy as you can imagine.

I went over today to try and speak to the travellers but there was no one around and they had already stuck up notices that under such and such act they were now the legal occupiers of the land and would take legal action against those who entered.

The nursery next door were very worried about this, naturally, and we have offered to help with the parents. We also out out about a 1,000 leaflets around the area getting people to write to the NHS trust in Tooting to get them to take legal action now. I am just a little worried that given the bureaucracy that the NHS is that they might take some time to get the wheels in motion. Nothing wrong with a little bit of people power.

One resident who I spoke to tells me that he rang the Lib Dem canidate's office and they asked whether he could make an appointment!!

First hustings are being held tomorrow evening at New Malden Methodist Church at 8.00pm.

Quite a busy day today. Wednesday will be the half way point in the campaign and e are well into canvassing and delivering. Still an enormous amount to get out.

Discovered that the opposition are using professional delivery companies for their delivery which gives them a bit of an advantage. However it seems to be a fairly bland paper going out with lots of pictures of Charles Kennedy. Not sure that will win them much favor as it was their naked localism that won the seat to start with.

We were out in St. Mark's ward doing some final deliveries of recent leaflet and meeting some people on the streets. surprising that during last elections this area would have been awash with Lib posters but hardly any to be seen.

Good stuff on pensions yesterday which once again has really tuned in to local concerns. A lot of people of all ages asking about pensions and what we intended to do about it. I am told there is more Conservative policy to come on Council tax as well which would be welcome to the many who are seeing the Lib Dems Local Income Tax policy as a nightmare for families and middle income earners. Shocking to hear yesterday that a nurse and fireman in the same house would pay significantly more in Kingston and Surbiton than they would under the Council Tax.

Met police chief backs ID cards

It used to be the case that during elections public servants made no comments of a political nature. What happened to that?

It was also the case that during elections Governments were not to announce new long term funding for anything. Where does Rover leave us?

St. George Sunday

Another good day. This morning was at church.

This afternoon we had the St. George's day scout parade with over 1,000 scouts coming together in Tolworth and moving through the area with some great bands. It was preceded by a church service.

This evening had to sing a great piece of music by Britten - "Abraham and Isaac". Went well with a moving silence at its conclusion.

Campaign moves into a new week and spirits are high. Who knows what the result might be but the positive vibes from those I meet point to something interesting happening. I will keep you posted on what happens this week.

What a great day. We have decided that canvassing (knocking in doors) is a bit of a waste on Saturday mornings. Most people seem to shop on Saturday mornings so it makes sense to go where the voters are. Started this morning in Victoria Road, Surbiton. Had about 6 of the team with me handing out leaflets. Really great response and at my happiest so far in this campaign. One lady said to me: “We have had a nice man looking after the constituency for you for the past eight years and it is now time to get a Conservative who can make things happen!”

All went for coffees in Puccino’s before heading off for delivering with the students in Alexandra ward.

This afternoon we tried New Malden. Very quiet. This is probably the norm for these secondary shopping sites but New Malden is probably not helped by the roads and pavements being dug up whilst they put in a new pavement. We were opposite Blockbuster, on the High Street, and I have to say it reminded me how when I was younger the store used to be Sainsbury’s that had a wonderful tiled area where they kept the cold meats. My grandparents would frequently take me in there. Hard to think New Malden has neither them nor Sainsbury’s in it now.

Had a quiet evening at home this evening trying to recharge batteries. Another busy day ahead tomorrow, even on a Sunday.

Early to bed!

Bradford to Alexandra ward

Was in Bradford today on business. Fascinating place with some interesting problems around creating an integrated society in multi racial country.

This evening we were out and about campaigning in Alexandra Ward. Excellent response and my first time of being invited in to meet the family and have them check out whom they were voting for! Very tired this evening after a long week of work and campaigning. Busy weekend ahead and relatively early night needed tomorrow to prepare for the next week!!

BBC and the name game

Had an early business meeting in Broadway with a company looking to engage communities in the development of prisons and offender management. Very interesting that the community is now getting seen as having a role with prisons. We have done a lot of work in schools and health but now prisons!!

The BBC filmed a short piece on this corner of SW London. They were making the point that the lib Dem Local Income Tax announced today would hit very hard residents in Lib Dem seats such as Kingston & Surbiton and Richmond Park. The cameras followed myself and Marco Forgione (Richmond Park Conservative Candidate) for a couple of hours. Was on both the 6pm and 10pm news.

Marco was telling me that he had a letter from a resident who supported him but was worried about the Italian origins of his name. The resident suggested that he might want to change it before the election! You do get some odd requests during the campaign but changing your name is a little extreme.

Canvassed tonight in Beverley ward in New Malden, which was another successful evening. Great response in the Fountain pub afterwards. Approached by a few of the fellow drinkers who were surprised that I go in pubs and drink pints of beer!

Out and about in Tolworth and Surbiton

More campaigning this evening. 8 of us were knocking on doors in the Tolworth side of Surbiton Hill. Tremendous response from a road that you would not normally believe to be Conservative. About 150 houses were prepared to tell us there voting preferences and of those we were getting about 60% of their pledges.

Retired to a pub for a drink. Actually we are getting some real good discussions in the pubs themselves. People come over and tell us they normally vote Labour but are coming across to us. Interestingly there are a number of Labour supporters who were for the war but are fed up with Blair and the spin he put on the reasons for war.

This election becomes more unpredictable as time goes on.

Hospital Motion at Council

I had a full council meeting to attend this evening. I had tabled a motion calling on the Council to appeal to the Minister for more funds for the hospital. The catalogue of problems we have seen over the last few months is very concerning. It was also revealed this week that the hospital funding black hole has widened from £5m to £6.5m. I do not criticise the hospital directly because the staff are doing wonderful work. But there is something wrong when we have seen over 100% extra funding pumped into the hospital since 1997 and yet it still has a crisis in Winter over a lack of beds.

Ending the abuse

This site was set up by me to allow residents and voters in Kingston to gain an insight into my activities and to get an understanding of my views on Conservative policy and my perspective on the policies of other parties.

Part of that process is that voters could then interact with others and question my view.

Unfortunatley, since the election was called last week, this site has been inundated with inappropriate and slanderous comments that are inappropriate to an audience of 300 regular unique visitors a day. It is clear they originate from my political opponents. I have attempted warning people but it has been to no avail.

I am therefore left with no alternative but to shut down the comments section of this blog for a period. I may well open them up again in a few days. You can still email me and I would be happy to reply. I have had a look at some of the other blogs of Parliamentary Candidates and it appears to be a common problem that they are experiencing and the only alternative they have is to shut down the comments. Lynne Featherstone and Iain Dale have had to do the same. I regret this.

The postings I make will continue and I hope they continue to be of interest to you all.

The first weekend

Been a very busy first weekend. Deliveries out in a number of wards on Saturday and finishing up on Sunday before we start expenses on the Monday. Had lunch out with team on Saturday. The Royal wedding made campaigning somewhat low key and really only 'delivery' authoirised by Conservative Central Office.

Had a sackful of Lib Dem lies in a leaflet they decided to issue in Berrylands/Alexandra ward. I have sent a copy off to Charles Kennedy just to get him to confirm whether it is the same clean campaigning he was talking about on TV this morning. We will decide what to do about it next week but I am reluctant to go negative by spilling the beans on the great Davey betrayal of the Post Offices. Do not believe in negative campaigning myself but when your opponent resorts to blatant lies about his opponent rather than fighting the election on policy you wonder what will be next. His chief compliant was I apparently did not turn up to a meeting with a junior Post Office Ltd Manager. This was a meeting that was never going to change the views of the Post Office and was merely a single part in a pretty rigged consultation process and a meeting which I had not said I would be attending anyway. My ward colleague did attend it as our representative. The reason I was not there was because I was attending to my very ill 2 year old daughter; the health of my family being very important to me. Actually one resident thought it made the Lib Dems look pretty stupid if they thought it was a hanging offence.

The Postmaster near me was pretty fed up that when this Post Offices closure in Berrylands was announced and the Lib Dem MP did not bother to ask him what he thought about it before leaping into the press.

Things are good at the moment. Next leaflet starts on Monday and a week ahead of stuffing, delivering, printing, canvassing and public meetings.

Public meeting, the day's news and Lib Dem education

Busy day trying to do the day job. One of the difficulties of being a candidate is life must go on and salaries earnt. The incumbent has the luxury of no longer having a day job, as they are technically not a MP and they therefore have the time to spend on the campaign.

Last night we held the first of what we hope will be a series of public meetings. Weather was pretty foul so I was pleased we got as many there as we did. Was quite worried beforehand as you never know how these things will go but in fact enjoyed the experience in the end. Will now look to lining up a few more.

There has been an odd mood to the campaign so far. The death of the Pope and the royal wedding have caused a ‘stop start’ campaign. We had no campaigning activity at all last Sunday, nothing tomorrow apart from some delivery and the same on Saturday.

I see that at his press conference this morning Tony Blair refused to rule out tax rises after the next election. There are now so many economic organisations that are predicting rises that it is rather difficult for him to spin away from this. I gather that Blair and Brown are both sponsored by Unions who are calling for windfall taxes on banks. The Lib Dems meanwhile are at least coming clean that they want higher taxes.

Of interest to me was the launch of the Lib Dem education policy. Very simply they seem to have got the wrong focus on what they are trying to do. Abolishing faith schools and grammar schools is really somewhat of a nonsense. In fact under this Government, although they would not want to admit it, the number of new faith based schools has expanded through their City Academies scheme. The Lib Dem policy of scrapping GCSE’s and ‘A’ levels is also a mess. Like their income tax proposal this policy is about changing the system without changing the problem. Changing the system is not about driving up standards. The Conservative proposal to tackle the bad behaviour of some pupils that destroy the education of others by their actions is something that schools need. Giving power to Headteachers and school governors to exclude pupils is better than trying to force excluded pupils back into mainstream schools, which is the Lib Dem proposal.

One of the key features of the Lib Dem proposal was the reduction of class sizes to twenty. This might sound very appealing. However, as someone who works in the education sector, the jury is definitely out in terms of the benefits of this. A recent report has shown that when Labour reduced class sizes to 30 for 5,6 and 7 year olds the educational benefits were negligible. In any case I have no idea where they believe they would get the money to employ 2 or 3 new teachers per school as well as build the new classrooms. In fact it is well known we are facing a teacher crisis in about five years time.

I was closely involved in Kingston when we lowered the class sizes from 32 to 30 and the rows and unhappiness this led to in both the schools and the communities was immense. That was only six years ago. So, it would be interesting to hear from the Lib Dems where they would be putting what would be the equivalent of 3 or 4 new infant schools considering the immense problems we had to find space and build on educational land for the reductions in 1999. But as I have said before, because none of their policies would be implemented they can get away with this!

Day 2 - the first opponents leaflet

Another long day on the campaign trail.

Finishing off newspapers in St. Mark’s and now preparing for the next leaflet and targeted letter.

My wife was out doing some delivery this morning as well.

My opponents first piece of literature has surfaced. Seems determined to fight this as being a close race which is of course fine by me. Also very curious that he refers to me as “Michael Howard’s Conservative”, which of course I am, and very proud of it. Considering the most recent polls show that Charles Kennedy comes a very poor third when people are asked who would make a better Prime Minister I am quite happy for them to keep repeating it. Maybe I should start referring to my opponent as Blair's Lib Dem as it is clear that if you vote Lib Dem you are going to get Blair again!

Funny thing – I thought the Lib Dem Colour was yellow, so why has their leaflet become Robert Kilroy-Silk perma tan orange?

Met a couple of pensioners very keen for our Council Tax policy and the rebate for pensioner households. Also a young couple distinctly unimpressed by the Lib Dem local income tax policy. I think what my opponent had to say in The Independent a few months back was what most alarmed them.

"Double income households earning the "early £40,000s" and single income
households with earnings in the "late £30,000s" were likely to be hit, he said'
(The Independent, 1 April 2005)

The fact a couple earning just over £20,000 each will pay more is alarming. By our figures, based on current Kingston Council Tax rates, they would pay 5% on the basic rate. Trouble is that the Lib Dems will not admit how much it would cost for Kingston households.

Marsden makes about turn

Not sure you would want this chap to join you! Still he demonstrates what we have been saying all along; a vote for the Lib Dems is a wasted vote as only two parties can win this election.

We're off

So we have started!

Glad to get on with it after the past nine months of delivering and canvassing.

Immediately priority was sending out a targeted letter which my hard working members have spent the past two days stuffing. We were also at Surbiton Station for a time and a resident said they would not take a leaflet as he had spent the past four hours stuffing my face into an envelope.

We got moved on from the station by the Station Manager. New policy means that we cannot leaflet on railway property. We could do from the pavement but the trouble is you are liable to a fine from the Council. So instead we went and delivered the leaflet into St. Mark's ward. Covered about 1500 properties between the 8 of us. Also had deliveries going out across the other wards.

Also saw the first Lib Dem leaflet. Amusingly they refer to me as Michael Howard's Conservative. I think they believe that associating me with Michael Howard is a bad thing. Does not bother me, after all he is the Conservative Leader. Maybe they should read the polls a bit more which quite clearly demonstrate that irrespective of which party people vote for Kennedy trails a very poor third when asked the question: "Who would make the best Prime Minister?" Given that were there a hung Parliament it would be the Lib Dem's going into coalition with this awful Government maybe I should start referring to the Lib Dem candidate here as "Blair's Lib Dem".

We are holding a public meeting on Thursday to kick off the campaign, all are welcome.

Ended the day with a pint in the Antelope in Maple Road.

Farewell to Jim Bates

Jim Bates was the vicar of Kingston Parish Church, opposite John Lewis in Kingston.

Last night a farewell was held for him at which a couple of hundred people turned up. The Mayor came as well.

Jim has been a fine vicar of Kingston. Outspoken at times, upsetting at others, but always keen to express his view in the most recent debates about Kingston and the way the church functions in the centre of our town. I nominated him for, and he received, a Mayor's award for his work for Kingston.

He will be missed by Kingston as the church now moves foreard to select a successor.

Out delivering and canvassing this evening in Grove ward.

Death of Pope John Paul II

As many of you are aware I am a man of faith. I believe in God and I am a regular worshipper at Church.

I think what struck me most about the death of the Pope is not the "sadness", as some would express it, for ultimately all death is sad, but the dignity of the Pope's dying as he set off from this world to the next. The Pope had a painful last few years but the way in which a modern media enabled us all to see him go through those last days really captured something in the public imagination I had not thought possible.

For those of other faiths and those of no faith to feel an outpouring of emotion at this man's going, despite whatever his views might have been on a range of "conservative" issues such as abortion and contraception, there was deep, and I hope enduring, respect for what he had done in leading the Roman Catholic church these past 26 years.

Catch up Thursday

I took a few days off because of the easter holidays for the children. Also pretty clear that once the election gets called next week I am not going to be seeing a lot of them in the evenings. Will always try and do breakfast with them!

Been delivering and canvassing most of this week and had a meeting over the pretty ridculous scheme being proopsed for Hook Road that has gone to planning appeal.

Easter Sunday

Good day yesterday. Lunch with parents and family in Old Malden interspersed with some church. Quite tired today at the end of the ‘pre’ ‘pre’ election and the start of the ‘pre’ election on Tuesday. Also good to see more daylight in the evenings, makes knocking on doors a little bit easier.

Tomorrow will be spent catching up with paperwork and updating the campaign diary ready for meeting on Wednesday of all ward Chairman.

Borough wide newspaper arrived Thursday and that and targeted letters going out this week before election gets called next week (4th or 5th). Then we start again. Good teams in place all over Borough now, just a small job to start plugging a few gaps where people are away for Easter.

Howard Flight and the Lib Dem Flight of Fancy

When the Howard Flight story began to break I had some sympathy for the man. Until that was I heard that he had been warned by Michael Howard’s office on two occasions that he should not say the things he did because they were not true. It is quite clear there are no secret plans for massive cuts. This is particularly clear by the way in which Blair himself was caught out last week trying to spin Conservative proposals into something that was a fabrication. As I have said on this blog before the nonsense of the Labour attempt to smear is that two thirds of the slower growth rate is accounted for by the fact that Labour have themselves pledged to make those reductions.

It is rare that I consider a politician odious but I have to say that the current secretary of state for health (whom Jeremy Paxman described as the “labour attack dog”) is really deeply unpleasant and unappealing. He too attempted to spin that somehow our health proposal was to make people pay for operations which is itself a down right lie. All access to the health service would be free at the point of delivery. What is clear though is that the health service has not the capacity to deliver the operations it currently requires. To give a real example my understanding is that Kingston hospital is tuning away 50 pregnancies a month from its maternity department due to lack of capacity

Labour spin and deception are nothing in comparison with the methods of total spin used by the Lib Dems in Richmond Park. In a recent tawdry leaflet they have wrongly and fraudulently claimed that the Conservatives (who are the opposition in Kingston Council) were proposing to increase charges for the elderly and disable home care then it is no surprise that Jack Straw has called the Lib Dems the “Vultures of Politics”. To set the record straight it was in fact the Liberals themselves who were hiking the charges, as well as introducing means testing, even though this is totally contrary to their own national policy for free personal care. To make it worse we now know that less than 10% of those taking this care have bothered to apply for means testing as it such a debasing and humiliating thing to make them do.

Unfortunately for Richmond Park Liberals it is not just us that are saying this; The Kingston Labour Party, the Surrey Comet, The Kingston Informer (no website), The Kingston Guardian, The Richmond and Twickenham Times, Age Concern Kingston, the Kingston Centre for Independent Living and the Kingston Council website (sorry, not able to make the link as yet again the Council website is not working!!) all agree with us. Our budget proposals were to take away the means testing and revert to the previous lower and fairer charges. Just a shame that the local MP could not control his Council and bring them to heel. The Conservative proposal would not have increased Council tax and would have cost only £65k or the equivalent of 0.001% extra Council tax they could have levied which would have taken the Lib Dem Tax rose from 4.99% to 5.00%. They had options and instead they chose to stamp on the elderly and disabled of Kingston rather than do the right thing.

Rotary

Attended a rotary lunch today. Very good event with a good attendance. The Greater London Authority member for SW London, Tony Arbour, was giving a speech on the responsibilities, or maybe that is irresponsibility, of the Mayor for London. Struck me what an excellent charitable organisation Rotary was for bringing businessmen, and those with an interest in charitable works, together.

This evening was spent delivering, mopping up a few roads before we launch into a borough wide newspaper next week.

The £35bn Cuts Claim

Following last nights blog on the budget I thought readers might find this report interesting. Draw your own conclusions.

The Great Budget Bribe

Never would I have believed I would see a budget painted as a give away that actually raised more tax than it gave back.

This Government has still not learnt when to stop spinning and painting one picture when the reality is different.

£200 Council Tax rebate for households over 65 - well yes but only for one year, the year when an election is due. Totally outrageous but I think it will backfire because voters are not stupid.

Free bus transport for over 65's - Yes, but only after we have had legislation and even then it will only be off peak travel. In itself fine but why not tell it straight instead of just spinning something different?

And then the plain lies.... Labour say "Tory Cuts". The Conservatives are not proposing £35 billion of cuts because we intend spending to rise in education and health. In any case Labour has a damn cheek because £22bn of the savings are the savings they identified in the Gershon review!! What we have said is that spending should rise less fast than it would under the tax and spend Labour Government.

Of course the Lib Dems are silent in this debate because it is their policy to have higher overall taxation and spend even more that either us or Labour. In fact the taxation difference between Conservative and Lib Dems is £8bn. We would cut taxes by £4bn but they would increase taxes by £4bn

Catholics abort Labour?

Michael Howard seems to have created another storm over an issue that for some is a strange change of battleground: abortion. Interesting that it was not a policy announcement merely an interview with all party leaders for Cosmopolitan magazine. (there appears not to be an online version of this magazine)

Should the date at which abortion is legal be reduced to 20 weeks from the current 24 weeks? Well back in January I got asked this question on this blog. Below is what I said then and I stand by it today.

Pro choice but again with caveats. I believe that the current date at which
terminations can be allowed should be reduced. Science has changed and moved on
and I think there is a real chance that we are currently destroying sentient
human beings that could exist outside of the womb.

Some claim that there are circumstances of foetal abnormality that can still be identified after this time but I do wonder how much of that is merely the current set of test times and whether they too could be reformed. Is there a Doctor who can answer this for me?

One of the stranger aspects of this is the supposition that somehow Catholics were more likely to support Labour than the Conservatives. I am not sure that this is always the case but would be interested to hear what others, especially Catholics, might say about this.

Channel 4 are watching

Interesting news that Channel 4 want to follow this blog during the lection campaign as part of their election coverage.

Should be interesting to see what they make of it!

Lord Lamont Dinner

Last night we held a fundraising dinner with Lord Lamont of Lerwick.

Excellent evening that coincided with the publication of a report (Whatever happened to the golden legacy?) that says that the success of the economy today is only because of the Conservative Government of the early and mid 90’s.

In fact the Evening Standard even called Lamont a “Brilliant Chancellor”. (Lamont paved the way for Britain’s boom.)

I think the time is coming when we Conservatives need to stop apologising about Governments of the past, as much of what was done was successful. After all people voted for it. As has now been demonstrated the events of Black Wednesday did not signify as high a level of economic mismanagement as some would try to spin.

This morning we were mopping up the final bits of delivery before we change to pre election activities next week.

Sick Blogger

Apologies to those who like regular blogs but I have been struck down with gastric flu the last few days, seems to be going around the children.

Should be back to normal blogging next week.

Bed crisis at Hospital

I have had a call from a resident who has a mother she says is sleeping on a camp bed in Surbiton Hospital.

I have rung the PCT (they run Surbiton hospital) and they confirm they have had to put up extra beds in the "day room", although they would not confirm that they were camp beds. They blame Kingston Hospital (the acute hospital) who have a bed crisis.

Spoke to the Chief Executive of the hospital and she confirmed there was a problem with more admissions from A&E than normal.

Our hospital and it's staff do a great job. But the job they do sould not be in difficult circumstances if you consider how much tax we have now paid and the Government have directed towards the health service. We should have an adaptable service that meets the needs of the patients and it is clear the current organisational structure of the health service does not do that.

Day away

Spent today in York on meetings for work. Trains worked well and very impressive that you can get there in under two hours.

This evening had a meeting to discuss the constitution of the Council, not something to et the normal voter ablaze.

After that I attended a residents meeting for those against the telephone mast in Raeburn Avenue. Good meeting with a lot of people there and a strategy to really have a go at Orange over this.

Not feeling to great this evening and hope this is not something I am going down with.

Quiet weekend

Had a fairly quiet weekend. Some delivery on Saturday into St. Mark's and Surbiton Hill. Being Mothering Sunday also some work on getting presents from the hildren and lunch organised for my wife.

Another busy week ahead.

Grand Avenue School identifies the election issues

Paid a visit to Grand Avenue School to talk to some of their classes about being a politician and trying to explain to them what a politician does and what the difference is between local and central Government.

Of the two classes I spoke to both ended up in a debate about tax. Quite surprising considering the age. Even for them tax is an issue, manly because their parents and carers pay for it. Tax is all around us and when you tell kids of that age how much of their payment for sweets go to the Government they can soon understand how serious tax is as an issue. As ever all we need do is find the language that the voter will understand!!

Budget Council meeting

Well what do we do with this Lib Dem Council? They have seen the number of people employed by the Council rise by 22% in 4 years and add over £21m to the annual wage bill. We give them a method by which they could reduce staff by less than 1%, concentrating our reductions on bureaucrats, policy officers and Human Resource managers and they refuse it. Instead of our below inflation Council Tax increase they go for a whopping 5% rise, the highest in London.

We even gave them a method to remove the savage means tested scheme for personal care charges for the elderly and disabled and they refused it.

So much for their policy of free personal care when all they needed to do was make a small budget saving of £65k. It seems our Lib Dem MP and his Council are happy to go into this election with an attack on the elderly and disabled.

I met a lady at an Old Malden coffee morning last week who was a Lib Dem supporter but now feels at home with the Conservatives. How the political landscape in Kingston and Surbiton is changing.

Old Malden traffic calming

Last night we had a meeting on the traffic scheme proposed for the Manor Drive area of Old Malden.

Our job was to review what had gone on in the committee that decided to push ahead with the scheme. The residents had asked for it to be reviewed because they were unhappy at various aspects, in particular the method of consultation.

An odd meeting in some ways. The Co Chairmen of the committee that decided it agreed that there was new information they did not have when they took the decision. They also agreed that it would have been better had the results of the consultation gone back to the special residents working group that had been set up to look at the scheme. They even admitted that making the decision without reference to the residents broke their own consultation code the committee had adopted. And yet they refused to countenance the matter being redecided. Instead they hid behind a fig leaf that if they did not implement they “might” lose the funding. Now tell me that money does not lead and the proposal being a good one take second place?

I accept that some form of traffic measures need to happen, as do the residents, but there is a real need for Councillors to take heed of residents advice and not ride rough shod over their views when it suits them. Still we have been here before with this Council and flawed consultations!

Hospital meeting

Had an interesting meeting at the Guildhall this evening on the future of the hospital. The Chief Executive of the hospital went through their development plans for the next few years and talked about the investment in capital that is going into the site. Inevitably when it came to questions they tended to focus on cleanliness and infection control. I have two councillors I know who have recently been into the hospital and were very unhappy about the cleanliness of the hospital. I visited one of them and was struck by the overwhelming smell of urine on the ward as you stepped out of the lift.

There is no doubt that the hospital staff do an excellent job in very difficult circumstances. I also sometimes wonder whether the cleanliness issue is not also tied up in the general condition of the buildings at the hospital, which are in parts tatty and at worse look unhygienic even if they are not.

Other issues that emerged were the pressure being put on the maternity unit and the significant numbers they turn away monthly. Couple this with the current pans to close Epsom Hospital and we must all worry about the impact that this will have on our hospital. I am glad that the Conservative MP in Epsom and Ewell, Chris Grayling, is mounting a very vocal campaign against closure.

Action for Older People

LOWER COUNCIL TAX BILLS. BIGGER STATE PENSIONS. BETTER LONG-TERM CARE. ENCOURAGING SAVING. CLEANER HOSPITALS. MORE POLICE. RESPECT, DIGNITY AND SECURITY.

We have launched our policies for the elderly.

I read in the press that there are some that believe that policies that are directed at the elderly is about chasing votes. I reject this accusation. The elderly are after all a significant and growing proportion of our population and in fact any policy is about winning votes. I suppose it depends whether people believe you will have the chance to implement them that matters.

We have discussed Council Tax and the various alternatives before on this blog. You can see them here.

Death Duties
Tax and Spend

I believe that the basic premise of a property tax is right. Until this Labour Government there were few complaints about Council Tax. It has been the way the Government has manipulated the tax and thereby attacked the low earning, mainly elderly, on fixed incomes. The choice is lowering the tax or devising a wider selection of benefits. As I believe in not just lower tax but simpler tax I am not sure more multiple bands of discount is the answer. However, a simple discount to pensioner households is both straightforward and achievable. As for Local Income Tax? One elderly lady said she would be opposed to anything that made her pay less and inflicted more on her children, precisely what Local Income Tax would do. In Kingston it would be punitive taxation for those who have to pay it.

Raeburn recycling revisited

Some of you might remember this debacle from August 2004 and January 2005. Two months down the line the residents are still waiting for something to happen and I had a meeting on Saturday with a very unhappy resident.

What is the future of the recycling sites in residential areas? Technically with the advent of doorstep glass collections one would have thought the usage would decline. But even standing there on Saturday afternoon for fifteen minutes it was clear they are also being used for commercial dumping, especially restaurants disposing of bottles.

Old Malden

Met a group of residents in Old Malden this morning for coffee. Surprisingly animated about the coming General Election.

There appears to be a big problem in Old Malden at present concerning a road traffic scheme. The residents appear happy to accept the bits the consultation revealed they wanted but are less unhappy about having forced on them the bits the consultation revealed were less supported. We still have a problem with consultations in Kingston, they certainly do not appear to satisfy residents.

Anyway I gather the residents have a petition to call the decision in and I will be seeing something more of this issue next week.

New work

It has been a busy week this week. I am trying to set up a new not for profit business in the education field and currently have a heavy workload to get it off the ground. Had a busy campaigning week. We have been tackling parts of Norbiton this week and some canvassing in Berrylands.

There are continuing problems concerning a telephone mast in Raeburn Avenue that I have been helping the residents on. In fact the resident have set up a website about it on www.berrylands.net

My wife is away in Geneva at the moment so I am having to hold the fort.

Action on Health

Chapter 3...................

CLEANER HOSPITALS. SHORTER WAITING LISTS. LESS BUREAUCRACY. DOCTORS FREE FROM WHITEHALL INTERFERENCE. MORE CHOICE FOR PATIENTS. SUPPORT FOR FAMILY DOCTORS. HELP FOR PEOPLE WITH LONG TERM CONDITIONS.


Eight years after Mr Blair promised to save the NHS, Labour are spending record amounts of taxpayers’ money on healthcare. Yet a million people are waiting for treatment, and average waiting times have increased. More people are dying each year from infections they pick up in dirty hospitals than the number who die on our roads.

I found this statistic hard to believe ut it is true. We spend millions of traffic calming and yet more people die from MRSA than die in traffic accidents.

There is a common themes running through these polcies of "freedom to do your job". This is something we all cry out for when constained by the limits of our brief.

Regular readers of this blog will know about my frustration with the health service on the occsions I have used it. The story we hear that Kingston hosiptal has run out of money and stopped peforming routine surgery is a disgrace that out MP should be doing something about.

Figures have shown that the last Conservative Government increased Kingston Hospitals budget by an average of 5.4% per year, yet since 2000, despite massive tax hikes and spending increasing in the NHS of 10.7%, Kingston Hospitals budget has gone up by 6.9%!

Kingston Hospital is clearly not getting its fair share of health spending. We have paid our taxes but where is our service?

Action on Crime

Chapter 2 of our manifesto.......

More Police. Less paperwork and political correctness. More rehab places for addicts. Tougher sentences for career criminals. Prisoners to serve their sentences in full.

“The Conservatives have pledged to increase the number of Police nationally by 40,000 officers. Kingston has the lowest number of Police officers and PCSO’s in London. If there is nothing else that demonstrates we need a Conservative MP who will deliver then this issue is it! Interestingly the shopkeeper near me tells me the PCSO's are useless because they are not around in the evening to fend off the young people who try to illegally buy alcohol from him.

Crime is a key concern for us all. Crime has risen by 16 per cent since Labour came to office. Violent crime is up by 80%. Crime in London, especially serious crime, is rising fast and we need Police on our streets to act as a deterrent. As with much of the current Government we need to cut police bureaucracy and move police officers out of the office and onto the streets.

My Father was a Police officer and one of the reasons he took early retirement was because of the rising tide of bureaucracy and form filling he was seeing. He wanted to be out on the streets but the police service wanted him to fill out forms. He was so frustrated the only answer he had was to get out.

I also think the policy of having sentenced criminals serve tier full sentence is a sensible one. On one I speak to understand how a sentence gets passed and yet so little of it gets served.

The Liberal Democrats are soft on crime.

They do not believe in jail as a deterrent. ("I'm absolutely convinced that prison is a complete and utter waste of time." Mark Oaten Lib Dem Home Office Spokesman, November 2003)
They do not want to jail first time burglars.
They want to legalise cannabis and downgrade ecstasy.
They want rapists and paedophiles to have the write to vote from their jail cells. They would scrap the mandatory life sentence for murder.

Yet more choice for Kingston and Surbiton!

Action on Education

We have had a series of policy announcements over the last week. It has been fascinating how for the first time in a long time the Conservatives have been leading the field and setting the agenda and the Government has had to play catch up. As ever the Lib Dems have disappeared off the radar as the two main parties trade the policies of the next Government.

On education we have promised to:

Restore discipline in the classroom so that the minority of pupils do not ruin the education of the majority; Give parents the right to choose the best school for their children; Invest more in education so there are more good local schools; and scrap university fees so that young people do not start their careers burdened with debt.

Click above and it will take you to the full document.

The fact that a million children play truant every year is something this Government should be ashamed of. I recognise there are some who will never go to school because of their own family commitments but there are many who are alienated from school because the stridently dominant academic agenda of schools does not suit them.

The idea that we should be able to have choice is a good one. Actually in Kingston there is a good deal of choice, unless you have a son in North Kingston. Even in that area there are some good choices in Richmond. Kingston has mixed, single sex, religious schools, selection, partial selection, specialist schools. The one area we lack is a Church of England secondary school. What the real choice agenda is about is allowing successful schools to expand and this could be through federation rather than closure.

Finally on university fees. There clearly needs to come a point where education is no longer free. The judgment is when is that. I believe that a university education becoming a more common occurrence than it was 20 years ago has led it to be a bigger part of the 'formal' education process. A such it is essential that it be free. I understand the issue surrounding the funding of Universities and this is a valid aspect and one Government must address. Maybe the time has come for those who receive a University education to consider the post graduate giving that we see prevalent in the USA?

Blog away

Not blogged much in the last week as it is half term and iI have ben up a ladder trying to wallpaper and paint the dining room. Quite busy delivering in Old Malden and finishing Alexandra Ward. Have the University team out at the weekend.

Normal service will be resumed soon.

Cyberlove Ends In A Shock

I was sent this amusing story by a colleague but it is a useful reminder that you never know who you are communicating with when you are online!

I am going to reference the Guardian

For obvious reasons I am not a typical Guardian reader but I thought this article from Polly Toynbee on the incompetence of the Labour electoral machine over the last few days. It makes interesting reading for those who might write off a Conservative win in May.

Vote 2005

For those who like this sort of thing this is an interesting website of message boards around the election.

Fundraising gala

Hectic today!

In morning had campaign meeting to finalise the schedule for the general election, whenever it gets called. All pretty geared up whenever it happens, even if called early, which there are constant rumours about. Great team have come together to run this campaign. Some delivering in Alexandra ward up to lunchtime.

The rest of the day was given over to the rehearsal and performance of a theatrical review to raise funds for Kingston Parish Church, who have a rather large amount of repairs to undertake to the only grade I listed building in Kingston.

Great event but exhausted by end of evening....and so to bed....

Another busy week

It has been another busy week. Tuesday had a meeting discussing transport in the Borough and the budget the council is allocatin this year from road repairs and yet more traffic calming schemes.

Wednesday was out delivering leaflets in the evening in Tolworth followed by a Berrylands ward meeting. Thursday a bit more delivering and the first evening at home for quite a while.

Today had some interesting meetings. One of them was with the academics from Napier university on epetitioning. We get quite a lot pf petitions in Kingston and not all got up by political parties. The trouble with the epetition aspect is that it takes away the interaction between the person collecting the signature and the person signing. Until they can personalise some aspects of it I am not convinced it will take off. Still, they might find ways of improving it.

Parties get tough on unruly pupils

This is a fascinating piece from the three parties about school discipline. I have seen school discipline and it can be a mess.

There are only two quotes that I really agree with on this. One is the Lib Dem spokesman who says: "Labour has had nearly eight years to tackle school discipline and this latest piece of empty rhetoric will do little to solve the problem". The other is Michael Howard saying: "Our whole education system lacks ambition."

The fact is that much of the rhetoric of Government is about control and bullying...."We will remove disruptive pupils and put them in local authority controlled centres....We will enforce parenting orders...." The fact is that were schools to be given the flexibility and the freedom to engage pupils and interest them in learning then they might have a better chance. Yes, you need to enforce discipline and have control over disruptive pupils but whacking them on the head and chucking them out of the class does not always help. (NB I stress "not always")

Surely it is better to make the school responsible for those that are disruptive. Surely it is better to give the school the control to decide who remains and who is helped, not some bureaucrat in the town hall. Why not give the schools the tools to control and eradicate their behaviour by using CCTV and if you need them drugs tests and metal detectors. At least these tools will remove the weapons and the instigators of bad behaviour. I accept that parents have a role to play in this but, as ever with this Government, they believe that another piece of bureaucracy will sort the problem out. We all know that "parenting orders" will require a "parenting orders" co-ordinator. There are 150 Local Education Authorities in England; in one stroke we have added 150 more bureaucrats and £4.5m of spending!!

So Labour policy is: more bureaucrats, more bureaucracy, smack the parents around the head and who cares for the child.
Conservative policy: no more bureaucrats, give the school control and let them decide how best to deal with the child and parents.

Where are the Liberals? They are arguing for smaller class sizes, reducing teacher workload and improvements to the secondary curriculum. Good vote winning stuff except that:

Smaller class sizes are now proven not to improve educational attainment. Not me saying it but a leading University from a study they have done. In fact they have proven that at year 6 pupils in larger class sizes did better than those in small class sizes. What this proved is that poverty has a more direct link to attainment than anything else. This study is also on the Department for Education website.

Reducing teacher workload? Of course they do not spell out what they mean. If this is a matter of freeing teacher time to spend more time teaching disruptive pupils then I am not sure teachers would thank them. In any case work force reforms have been started under Labour.

Improvements to the curriculum? Not sure anybody is arguing there should not be changes so nothing distinctive here!

Anyway this is a big issue. With truancy reaching 1,000,000 pupils action needs to be taken.

Birthday weekend

Had a great Birthday. Started with delivery in Tolworth on Saturday morning (dedication?) and then took the kids bowling. No idea when I last did that! Eldest daughter won by some distance although I was clearly not trying!!?

Saturday afternoon was swooshed off for a surprise stay overnight in Lavant at West Stoke House. Great weekend away from the campaign and the mail.

Soon back to reality on Monday with a short bit of delivery in Grove and a Council group meeting in the evening.

News from the front

Been a busy week and not much opportunity to blog. Had some delivering to do early evening on Tuesday and then had a full council meeting followed by a Surbiton neighbourhood meeting on Wednesday. Lots of problematic issues including universally rejected traffic schemes, the council painting tennis courts blue and the application for a telephone mast.

Thursday had a long meeting on progressing some educational ideas and then a campaign meeting in the evening working on the General Election programme and checking where we were with current leafleting and canvassing activity.
Friday evening and some more delivery to complete and also had parents over for dinner as tomorrow is my……Birthday!

Conservative asylum plans

It is quite instructive that since the announcement of the plans for a cap on the number of asylum seekers the phone at the Conservative Association in Kingston & Surbiton has been ringing with people wanting to tell us how much they support it. Not party members, just members of the public.

Whatever else happens the status quo is not acceptable and the Government itself accepts this since they were remarkably quiet and commented little since the announcement. The Lib Dems clearly have a policy that says we will take as many people into this country as those who want to come here, this is clearly not in the interest of either the people of this country or those who have a genuine claim to come here. The Lib Dems were quick to critiscise and have since tried to spin the idea that genuine refugees would be turned away.

The fact Parliament will vote on a quota figure every year means that the figure will be based on real demand. Were there an international crisis then of course Parliament could review that figure. Surely it is better for MP's to set and monitor the figure rather than allow the free flow we have now. It would certainly be better than surrendering powers to an EU wide asylum system that the Lib Dems want.

This is a complex area in which no one system will be right. But a system that misleads refugees as to what and what is not available to them is not a system we should be associated with. The current system is misleading and confuisng to both those that live in this country and those that seek to come here. From confusion can grow resentment.

A system based on clarity and transparency with figures set as to the total number of refugees we as a nation will accept might help create a more accepting attitude to genuine refugees but will also be a humanitarian way of dealing with them.

As for this Government signing away controls over immigration to the EU? What a surprise that after all the rhetoric we had from Labour over getting tough on asylum and immigration they now reveal the extent to which they have handed over powers to Europe without even noticing. Clearly work is going to need to be done to get those powers back!

Busy day today. Another photo with the Alexandra Drive protesters who are against the parking restrictions they are trying to impose. This photo was from last week and the Informer. Today it was another paper. Agter that out delivering in Grove ward with our weekly In Touch leaflet. Quite chilly this morning but the Sun being out helped the delivery go faster.

The Christian View

I have attracetd a couple of comments about a site link on the right hand side that links to a website that claims to represent a Christian view of the Lib Dems. As I have said many times on this blog ultimately it is up to others to decide the truth or not of what is written here and the same is true of the site this blog links to.

I am a committed Christian. I have been attending church since I was seven and will have been attending the same church in Kingston for twenty five years this year. I am probably of the more conservative Anglo Catholic wing rather than the evangelical wing, so in religion I am not a hardliner. However, there are many reasons why the Lib Dems need to be exposed for the policies they squirrel away and never seek to speak about. I have already had some of these on my blog before such as the Lib Dem policy of allowing 16 year olds to buy pornography and making it easier to set up sex shops, as reported by the BBC.

So ultimately it is for voters to judge whether the document on the site mentioned has sourced what it says directly to Lib Dem policy papers and quotes or it has not.

Tax and Spend

Now we have clear water between the Conservatives and the other parties. The next Conservative Govenment would meddle less, provide value for money in public services by investing better and reduce taxation. Labour, if they win, are going to have to tax even more than they do now and spend more just as inefficiently. The Lib Dems are just going to tax more and more and particularly punish the middle class by introducing Local Income Tax.

"The middle classes...should pay more for a better society" (Charles Kennedy, BBC Radio 4, Today, cited on PA News, 24 September 2003).

Still I sometimes wonder why the Lib Dems ever worry about announcing policy because given the fact they are not going to be in Government and the fact that their Leader says they would never enter into a coalition then it must be quite difficult to discern why you would vote for them.

For the Conservatives the debate now moves on to where you reduce taxation. £4bn is not a lot in national tax terms but it indicates a path a Conservative Government would take. Seems we will have to wait until after the budget for that aspect but it does not stop speculation. For me there are a number of areas worth considering.

1. Raise the threshold at which income tax starts to be paid. Seems mad to me that if we have a minimum wage that those on it still pay tax!
2. Raise the threshold for inheritance tax. I hate these double tax systems. You pay income tax when you are alive and then you pay tax again on the same money when you die. I would like to see its abolition but that is stretching the £4bn too far.
3. Reduce Council tax bills and abolish the payment of Council tax for those households composed of people over the age of retirement.

Well that's a start but I suppose the debate may rage on for a while, at least until the election.

We had a Surbiton neighbourhood planning meeting with an awkward decision about a school car park being placed over a green area after the ned was revealed to be there by the CPZ imposed in the area preventing teacher parking. Tough one.

Back to the streets

Spent Saturday working but the campaign trail went back to the streets. Delivering this weekend in Chessington and now starting to build towards the General Election.

Spent time on Sunday with the children trying to get my son to read and work with numbers. Really frustrating as a parent as not really sure what they should be capable of and how you get what you take for granted over to them in a simple way.

I have a real passion about IT in education. I believe that the current IT strategy in schools is flawed and the Government cannot afford the cost of sustaining what they have spent to date. It concentrates on IT suites and lots of PC's when it really should be thinking about integrating IT into every lesson and classroom by using cheaper methods of IT such as thin client. It's complicated but it means you don't have expensive PC's but inexpensive "dumb" terminals that are low cost and only work when attached to the server, which could be held in a data centre that could be miles away. It will run word etc but it is held in the data centre. Anyway, the interesting question for education is this. Whenever Government talks about IT they tell us that it must demonstarte its effectiveness in raising standards but they never ask us to justify the use of books in the same way, why do they do this when clearly IT can have as big an effect on learning as the book does?

Sunday morning and evening spent at church.

Malden Manor Primary Schools

Visited Malden Manor primary School today. I visited first about 18 months ago when they were discussing what do with a bunch of old buildings spread across a fairly large campus. At the time there were discussions about whether to knock down the nursery and sell it to a developer. Instead they made their plans and won money from the Government to carry these works out.

I am delighted for the school but it does reveal one of the real problems of the way this Government allocates money. A few years ago the Department for education discovered it had a capital underspend and called for plans to be submitted for funding with a six week deadline for close of applications. One Kingston school, by co-incidence, had just finished planning and costing a scheme for the school and therefore submitted and it was funded. That was great for the school but others looked on aghast as no account was taken of need or any other aspect.

Malden Manor is a great school that will have a wonderful school site in about 18 months time and they raised their funds without political help! Maybe there is a lesson there for us all.

Licencing Act

I have been asked, elsewhere on this blog, what my views are on the new Licencing Laws and drinking in the town Centrex. These are important issues so I have created a blog entry about it.

Maybe I am getting older, or maybe it really is because we have many more drinking outlets in Kingston, but the town centre of Kingston, in common with other town Centres are becoming deeply unpleasant places to visit. I would have to check but I do remember reading somewhere that going back a hundred years there were some 14 inns around the ancient market place alone. Even I can remember when there were many more then there are now.

I was talking to an organisation that works with 'older people' and they make a very good case for Kingston not being a place where those in their late fifties onwards would choose to go at night. It is not just because there is little for that age group to do at night but also because town centres can be intimidating places when full of young people many of whom are in a pretty dreadful state of drunkenness.

Many of us have travelled abroad and seen the so called "cafe society" and the Governments current legislation seeks to bring that sort of environment about through having the ability of 24 hour opening. The question must be"is our society ready to accept the responsibility this brings" and I must say I have serious doubts it is? The theory goes that the longer the time you have to drink the less likely you are to get drunk and that the ending of the "turning out" period at 11pm will mean a dispersal of any potential violence. It could also be argued that all you end up with is a longer period of problems needed to be addressed by an over stretched police force.

One of the other serious issues I believe is open to debate is the removal of the granting of licences from magistrates and giving it to Councillors for decision, with some delegated to council officers. I do wonder whether this is such a sensible move? I am all for powers devolved down to the local level but wonder whether councillors have the skills, or might even be accused of having an electoral interest, in granting a licence. Magistrates have no such considerations and specialise in the area of licencing applications.

Am I for or against it? On balance I am against it because I think it is ill though out and in itself will not address the bigger need for a cultural change to personal responsiblity and away from binge drinking.

Social Justice - here and abroad

Spent Monday tied up in Council meetings for most of the time, mainly around the proposed Kingston theatre and then a meeting of the Conservative group of councillors in the evening.

Tuesday I attended the launch of the Conservative proposals for tackling third world aid and the role of the Department for International Development.

The launch was at the Centre for Social Justice at Hawkstone Hall. This is a very interesting church opposite Lambeth North tube station. It is the site where William Wilberforce started the Anti Slavery Movement, Lord Shaftesbury helped establish the Ragged Schools and the family of Abraham Lincoln built a tower in his honour. All were Conservatives. At this place is now the Centre for Social Justice, a Conservative centre looking at issues around poverty and creating a socially just world.

Tuesday was the annual state of the Borough debate at Kingston Council.

Cumbrian rains

Very sad to see the impact of the heavy rain on areas of Cumbria, especially around Carlisle. It is difficult for some to argue that our weather patterns are not changing but as a lay person in this area you do wonder how much this is cyclical weather and how much is really global warming.

One of the aspects that seems to have been missed is my concern about over development for new housing. I remember when some relatively recent flooding took place in Kent there was a good deal of talk about how the development of Greenfield sites, that had previously been flood plains that alleviated the build up of water after heavy rains, had probably been as much of a contributory factor to the problems of flooding as global warming. But it is not just housing, I gather that turning these sites into animal grazing land has the same effect and I guess it could have been an issue in Cumbria.

I am sure there is something in this and we need to be very wary of Government targets to build more and more housing in the South of England, just the sort of areas that would suffer from flooding due to their relative height against sea level.

Catch up days

News dominated by only one subject at the moment. Having seen some more film of the strength of the water and the debris it contained I now know why there were so many deaths.

End of another busy week. Wednesday had campaign team meeting which was pretty up beat and a good start to the New Year. Campaigning recommences next week and will keep us all very busy.

Friday spent out an about around Kingston picking up an appalling survey of areas where the local Council is really letting people down. I have sent out an press release, with photos, which you can check out here.

Saturday was spent catching up with correspondence and doing some work on campaign strategy. Also have spent some time up dating the website.

Sunday was Epiphany Sunday. In the afternoon popped into a children’s Epiphany party at St. John’s and in the evening attended the Epiphany Carol Service at All Saint’s, Kingston.

Tsunami debt

I found this article in The Times and was frankly staggered by the figures being presented as the amount of total debt that the countries owe. What I would like to see is how long it will take to pay off these debts. UK Government borrowing averages about £36.4 billion; worth bearing in mind when looking at these figures.

I have no problem with the principle of paying off third world debts (although I question whether the term "third world" is necessarily right in some of these instances.) I am however very much in the camp believes that there needs to be safeguards in place to prevent the accumulation of future debts within these countries and that future loans are spent on the evident need for infrastructure and not on weapons and palaces etc. The question is how do you do thuis without appearing to run their economies for them and becoming part of a new form of economic colonialism?

The End of the Year

A great New Year weekend. Spent Friday night at home with the family. Had one of those embarrassing moments where forgot that most of the food shops would be closed Saturday (New Year’s Day) and so had to “live off the Camels’ hump” in the freezer. Sunday had lunch with my parent’s before my brother went back to Manchester.

Monday we went off for a walk ready to prepare for return to School and work on Monday. Been a great holiday but all good things come to an end.

This is an important year for the country and for Kingston. For the Conservatives it gets off to a flying start tomorrow. Until then I have some deliveries to finish off this evening in Berrylands!!!

The Bay of Bengal disaster

I am a great admirer of India. It is a nation that I have travelled in and done business with for a number of years. Their only problem is bureaucracy, which believe it or not, is worse than ours. I suppose they did get it from us after all. I once remember being on a train where I had bought the right ticket but had not paid my cancellation fee, even though I did not cancel the ticket. The attendant then proceeded to fill out a form as long as my arm that asked for questions such as my Mother’s maiden name; all for 30 rps (about 50p).

So, it is with great sadness that I hear of the devastation around the Bay of Bengal, especially near Chennai (Madras). I had a warehouse and office at Parrys Corner just across the road from the beach and have no idea whether it has been flattened or whether those I know have perished.

There is however an indomitable spirit about those who live in Asia. Despite glaring poverty there is obvious wealth and as the world’s fifth richest nation I know India will survive and take little aid to do so.

But what was Blair thinking of? I have heard Jack Straw trying to defend his decision to stay in Egypt and not return home. The excuse went something like he is in constant contact and there is no need for him to return. The problem is this is not about whether the Government can run with or without him? This is about showing solidarity with the nation he leads who at the time of him sunning himself was embarrassingly outbidding his Government in the amount of aid that they are giving to what is such a worthwhile cause.

I think 2004 has demonstrated, if nothing else, that like all Prime Ministers, Blair is slowly losing touch with reality and the people he serves.

Blogger down

Merry Christmas to all. apologies for my tardiness in not blogging for the last few days. This is partly due to Christmas (good excuse) and the fact that I went down with tonsilitis Boxing day evening and only just emerged (probably not that good an excuse).

Great Christmas with the children. Went to a crib service Christmas eve at All Saint's Kingston. Lots of young angels, Shepherds and Kings. Sang midnight mass that evening and then got to bed eventually at about 2. Santa works fast as there was no sign of him, even at that time of night.

Chidren were up at about 7.15. I probably woke them attempting to stuff a turkey; never the greatest job in life. 9.30 we were all back at All Saint's for Christmas morning mass and what a beautiful sunny, but chilly, morning it was.

Christmas day was with parents and in laws in Berrylands. Long lunch, attempt to listen to the Queen and then even more vain attempt at a snooze.

Boxing day at my parents with brothers and nieces (2 of ) and my four children. Started to deteriorate that evening and by Monday morning felt like death with swollen tonsils. Collapsed and spent two days on sofas/bed watching classic black and white movies including some great Pink Panther films!!

On the mend now and preparing for New Year.

Will write shortly on the Asian disaster. An area I know well at the front of the troubles there but difficult to find out details. More later........

Heard today of a dreadful accident on Christmas Day when a driver wrapped themselves around these silly new traffic calming measures the Council has installed in King Charles Road. Think a combination of traffic calming and blindingly low winter Sun were a dangerous mix. What a way for them to spend Christmas Day; dragged from their car wreck with blood all over! All courtesy of Kingston Council traffic calming measures.

Lib Dems and ID cards

Would you believe it!

They rattle on about integrity and have a go at Howard over his backing for ID cards but at least he has been consistently for them. Seems the only reason they changed their minds was because it was not their idea. We need some honesty in politics and you cannot always go around chasing votes and be serious at the same time.

Howard preferred ridicule to being thought soft on terror

I have had a few comments on my blog about the ID cards issue and I thought that that those who had not seen this alternative view from the Telegraph might find it interesting. I hope that the link works because sometimes the Telegraph needs you to log in to see archived material!

ID cards in perspective

There are times when politicians can get things out of perspective and I think this may well be one of those times.

It is clear the public want these cards (80% approval rating apparently!) and the Government is determined to give them. I accept that having cards will never make it impossible for terrorists to strike but it will act as another barrier they would have to pass through. But there are other aspects of this policy that many of us already use. All teenagers, when reaching sixteen, are issued with a plastric ID card that bears their National Insurance number. It is not an enormous step away from that to a full ID card.

However, more importantly, I believe that a large number of people believe that it is right that you should have a card to present when you want to access public services, such as health and benefits. People I speak to on door steps tell me they are fed up with hearing about people who gain benefits when they are not entitled to residency or are the supposed "health tourists" coming here for emergency treatement because it is free. I do not know whether these tales are true or not but I guess an ID card will give them some security that it is being made a lot more difficult.

But there is the problem? The card is being used for two purposes; security and access to services. Each of the uses probably gets a different response from different people.

Still, how much a step away from "chip and pin" credit cards, and all their apprent problems. will an ID card be?

Richmond Park Friends

Had a very interesting and constructive meeting with members of the Friends of Richmond Park. We had a useful debate about the future of Richmond Park after the decision whether to make the closure of Robin Hood Gate, amongst other changes, is made permanent. They also raised some interesting issues around what the local Councils responsibility is to not use the park as an escape valve for traffic problems in the vicinity. I have also asked soem wuestions of Council Officers as to what duty we have to consult when we have large developments planned for Kingston that will inevitably have an influence on Richmond Park traffic flows.

Clearly the Royal Parks Agency handled the original consultation badly and I shall be discussing with coleagues on the Council what form of debate we now want to have about the park and what form of a relationship we wish to develop with the RPA and the Friends.

He's Gone

How long does it take for a politician to resign? Well I sometimes wonder whether it takes as long as it takes for the press to get the stories that may, or may not, be true.

I am not one to preach that any human being, let alone a politician, is perfect. But when you start abusing your position to give some advantage over others as a means of impressing those who you want impress then I think there is an issue. I could not care less who a Home Secretary sleeps with but a politician runs into difficulty when he seeks advantage for either a member of his family or another. In reality what is the differnece betwen an MP who pursues a visa case for a constutuent and what Blunkett has done; probably not much except that not all MP's are Home Secretary!

Should a politician be entitled to a private life? Maybe his family is entitled to it but should those who choose to put themselves in the public eye complain when it goes wrong?

Council debate on charging for domicilliary care

What a bunch of mad fools the Lib Dems looked tonight. In a Council debate they spent an hour trying, feebly, to justify their evil means testing and charging.

No one can understand why they are doing it but the people on the streets are moving away from them fast. All for the sake of £250k the funding of which we found in a single afternoon with no cuts to front line services. They are foolish as this could be the beginning of a bigger campaigning unless they pull back during the preparation for next year's budget.

No politics in this actually. Just simple to understand that this is unnecessary. The Lib Dem MP? He stands on the sides and does nothing and when I ask for a private meeting to discuss how we help these vulnerable people he plays silly games. Trouble is that Lib Dems do not understand that not everything is about politics. There comes a time when you need to do things for people and this Lib Dem MP and council is failing in that simple priority.

Another busy weekend and Christmas preparations

Friday we held a Christmas dinner for the officers of the Conservative Association. A really good event.

On Saturday morning we were out again, this time in Kingston, helping Kingston Centre for Independent Living collect signatures for their petition against Davey's Council Lib Dem policy of massively increasing charges and introducing means testing for domicilliary care. No one understand why these Lib Dems are attacking the most vulnerable in Kingston when there is not a budget pressue to do so. Finding savings in the budget should be a walk in the park considering since 2000 they have presided over a rise in staff numbers of 22%. Yes - can you believe their incompetence - 22%!!! We wonder why they have stuck up Council tax so much.

The rest of the weekend was a little quieter although Sunday was spent putting up the Christmas tree and decorations. Bit of a family tradition to have carols at full volume when doing this! Also putting out this weeks In Touch leaflet in Berrylands.

Today had a big business meeting working on how we can reform the provision of IT in schools which to date has been poor and unsustainable. Spent the day in a data centre in Docklands.

We have both sets of parents coming to us for Christmas so better get on with planning the menu over the Christmas weekend.

The internet and elections

This article has some very interesting perpspectives on the role of the internet in elections. It will never win an election for you but increasingly voters are becoming "webbed" and the time will come when it will be a major medium for politicians to communicate.

Brave and cold souls

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Brave souls on New Malden High Street. Members of the Kingston Centre for Independent Living with syampathetic Conservative Councillors protesting at the Lib Dem Councils charges for personal care and the introduction of means testing.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

The blog system has been a bit blocked over the last few days so things tended not to get posted that quickly. The system seems back to status quo so hopefully you will see more of these as I write them.

Anyway, thought this was an interesting piece from the Director at Wave Network.

Cold New Malden on a Saturday

Out on the streets of New Malden helping collect signatures for the petition against domiciliary care charges organised by Kingston Centre for Independent Living. He public are horrified by all this. Surprisingly some even argue they would rather pay a little more than see this nasty and punitive tax on elderly and disability be implemented.

The Conservative group on Kingston Council submitted a motion to Council on the 14th December attempting to get them to change the Lib Dems to change their minds. This is now all beyond simple politics and is about the simple rights or wrongs of the policy. It is clearly wrong!

Also had a team out delivering in New Malden during the course of the day. Quite a lot of work going on.

Was at home this evening which is the first Saturday without some function for quite some time.

Still time for a drink

Last night, before the neighbourhood meeting, I had a meeting with members of the campaign trying to get the administration to overturn the punitive Lib Dem domiciliary care charges. They are very angry with this and many of them are Lib Dem supporters.

This evening was spent with my team working on image and press as well as helping restart activities around central Surbiton. Very good meeting and a list of activities now taking place to raise profile and get more press interest in the campaign.

Had a drink this evening at the White Hart in Hampton Wick. Good pub actually although it is attached to a hotel; one of the best we have near Kingston.

King Charles road traffic calming and Council Tax

Finally I got a chance to have a meeting with traffic engineers to discuss a ludicrous traffic planning scheme they have installed in King Charles Road, Surbiton. The scheme is full of chicanes placed at awkward places to the junctions. A real mess. They even managed to plant a new tree in a kerb build out, directly under the canopy of another mature tree. We will see where it leads and what the Council officers decide to do this time.

Another Council neighbourhood meeting this evening with very little on the agenda apart from some planning issues and concerns from residents about speeding cars down Villiers Road, Kingston.

The Government announced the grant awarded to Kingston for this year’s Council Tax. The Lib Dems have predicted a 9.5% rise in April and this grant does little to convince it will be much less unless the Lib Dems take some serious action. This all comes on a day when figures I have gained from the Council demonstrate that Kingston Council has increased the number of staff it employs by 22% since 2000. This is ridiculous. Some will be teachers and some will be grant given directly to fund the post, but no one could possible believe this accounts for all the increases. And whilst staff numbers rise we see the Lib Dems forcing means testing and increased charges for the most vulnerable elderly and disabled of Kingston. I heard from some of the protesters that even the Lib Dem MP refuses to argue their case for them, even though he apparently agrees with them!!

Thatcher warns of 'Iron Curtain'

A real blast from the past, but what glorious memories! This is an interesting intervention considering how little we have heard from her. In the words of another... "Blair is 'no Margaret Thatcher'".

The new 'Iron Curtain' is the left wing hegemony of Labour and the Lib Dems. But times change and it will become obvious to many that this is a Conservative constituency in a Conservative country. The questions is not if, but when that change will come.

Another busy weekend

The end of another busy weekend.

Saturday had a meeting with some party members who are thinking of standing for the Council in 2006. Good meeting with good turnout. Then it was back to the deliveries. Concentrating down in Old Malden this weekend.

Saturday afternoon spent catching up on a growing mail bag and also attemtping to balance this with help for children and their homework and piano practice.

Sunday was "Advent". The beginning of the church year. Busy day with a carol service in the evening. Interestingly this has been painted as the season awaiting the arrival of Christ at Christmas. However it is also about awaiting Judgement Day and the "end of time". A bit of low darkness before Christmas probably a good thing anyway....bah humbug!!

This is such a good picture I thought I would upload. Taken from recent half term holiday in Wales. Kids are Cameron, Jemima, Martha and Emily. My wife is behind the camera!!

Diary up date

Been another very busy week to date.

Tueday I had a meeting with Senior Officers of the Council and discussed a number of issues around the future direction of the Cuncil. Also heard that they have suspended one of the senior officers due to lack of performance. This worries me enourmously but until the "process" has been gone through it would be wrong to comment too far.

On the work front we today launched the Social Enterprise at Schools project I have been working on. This follows on from Enterprise week last week.

On Wednesday I met one of the Conservative Parliamentary Candidates in Reading who has quite a fight on his hands defeating the Labour party who have deselected their sitting MP.

In the evening I attended a trustee board meeting of the Citizens Advice Bureau. CAB is really a great orgainsation doing tremendosuly good work advising the most vulnerable, and the not so vulnerable, through what are at times are extremely difficult personal circumstances.

Tonight I had a meeting of the campaign team just to set our plans for now up until the calling of the general election. Setting weekly targets for delivery and canvassing.

Synagogue, elderly and disabled

Another busy weekend.

Good meeting on strategy and policy on Friday evening with a good number of St. Mark's members, all under 40!!!

Saturday busy with delivery in St, James's ward and a very moving visit to the synagogue for Remembrance day. Fascinating service and from my religious perspective I can see great and warming similarities to the style of the muslim religion as opposed to that of the christian tradition. I am a regular church member and appreciate the religious diversity of us all.

Saturday evening was spent at a fundraising dinner for Berrylands ward and about 60 or so members to which I spoke.

Sunday was spent tiling our porch (pretty porr DIY from me) and singing in the evening at Kingston Parish Church.

This evening spent at a reception for elderly and disabled groups and staggered at how, unprompted, they were prepared to express their anger over the Lib Dem policy of means testing and charging for domicilliary care. What a cruel world the Lib Dem world is! We need to act on this and do something outside the politics to help these people. Can it really be true that some of these disabled people would rather end their lives than pay these charges - I hope not!!?

Liberal?

This article is on a different issue but is it not rather odd that in this article Kennedy claims that the government is in danger of "eroding civil liberties unneccessarily" and yet then votes for the Governments Civil Contingencies Bill that gives a huge range of powers to ministers in the case of a very wide range of so called national emergencies, without reference to Parliament.

Economic slowdown 'highly likely'

Have been at a conference in Newscatle for last two days so having to cathc up with blog.

This is a worrying development on the horizon. Funny how economic indicators can sometimes be predicted by visible spending behaviour. Kingston shops 'appear' less busy. Trains 'appear' less crowded, but then that might just be increased capacity from the arrival of the new trains on SWT.

Certainly from an election point of view a downturning economy is no good for Labour but it is pretty difficult for the Conservatives to portray the fear of a downturning economy! Whatever else a Labour third term means higher tax and were it going to be a close run thing then the Lib Dems would join them in Government to force tax even higher.

We shall see what happens. Polls not great at the moment but then I remember the US presidential election polls six months out and Bush was a complete no hoper. The fact he even got close was a miracle!

Busy day ahead

Life settling down again after the Grove by election. Great weekend with people to dinner on Saturday and a Sunday spent remembering the dead of the war. Always very moving in Kingston to see those who experienced such horrors.

This evening had a reception for community organisations which went very well. The COnservative group has run a series of these as part of our responsibility to ensure we are outward facing as a Council.

Really busy week ahead, just hope I keep up.

Grove results in win for the humility by-pass party

A good fight in the end with all sides working hard. The Lib Dems held the seat but with a 14% swing away from them to the opposition. As I predicted most of that went to Labour who actually put in a good effort in this election. There is a quite well known Lib Dem who runs a Political Betting website. He has argued and worried for the Lib Dems about tactical voting unwind as former Labour voters who switched to the Lib Dems started to vote in their natural home and go back to Labour, this would particularly happen if at anytime a Labour voter saw the Lib Dems as a more potent force. It may well be we saw some of that last night.

We have had a comment about the result on the blog which I thought it worth bringing to greater exposure. This is clearly from a Lib Dem activist and I thought it important to give his remarks some airing.

Well well well - your usual Tory boy campaign of lies and distortions in Grove Ward have gone down well.Lib Dem win - 52% to 28%. Keep up the good work.For once you were right the Labour vote went up - they fought back from fourth place to claim a creditable third with a massive 11% of the vote. Probably helped by that master of the local political scene and Tory infiltrator - Councillor Steve Mama - maybe if he keeps it up just one day Tory boy might make him Mayor so he can dress up in the frock he so clearly has been drooling for since he became a fixture of the local political scene in about 1867.

The trouble with these idiots is that they think that politics is just a game. They think politics is a bit like football and it is all about running around all over Grove knocking omn doors and winning. Politics is far more serious than that because having won you have to do something. It is about how you affect peoples lives and how you use the trust they gave you to do things to improve things for them. That is the problem with Lib Dems, they do nothing when they get power and squander their majority with arguments, splits, high tax and fiddling around the edges rather than tackling the real problems. It is not about the stupidity and the lack of humility at the heart of the Liberal Democrats. Thankfully people are beginning to recognise them for what they are and as the result shows last night they are returning to parties that can represent them with some dignity and the skills with which to run public services.

There, got that off my chest, but doubtless there will be a stream of Lib Dem activists who will now comment on this and prove my theory further!! Actually maybe I should print the comment above in a leaflet?

Busy weekend ahead as have to restart deliveries elsewhere this weekend.

Grove goes to the wire and stem cells

Lots of work in the last few days. Two leaflets and a targeted letter in 4 days. Amazing how we have coped with this level of activity at a stroll. We are a different force from where we were a few years ago. Good news for the General Election when it comes. Whatever else we are doing well and Labour seem to have an increasing vote. Juts a matter now of whether the appalling Lib Dem record in Kingston sticks or not.

Going through a period of parents evenings at the moment. The children are really pleased when they do well and it is really pleasing for a parent when they perform above their expectations.

I see today that Michael Howard is backing stem cell research as a positive way forward to finding a cure for a host of diseases. I am in a quandry over some of this. There is a part of me that believes that Michael is right and that we should take whatever medical reasearch initiatives we can to prolong life and make life better for those with serious diseases. There is another part of me, the part that believes in a religious and spiritual dimension, that questions whether expeimentation with an unborn foetus is the right way forward for medical research. Once again I am reminded of the 'Yes Minister' salami tactics. Where do you stop? Is any form of medical research acceptable? We as 'born' humans have the right to say that our bodies can be used for medical research but who is the voice for the unborn foetus?

I am not yet sure of my position on this but I have found this US site interesting, especially the role of the use of adult stem cells in developing cures for these many diseases.

A North East Assembly?

It's been the last weekend of the by election and as busy as hell. Couple that with fireworks for the children on Saturday (or is it for me really) and you get a really busy couple of days.

Sunday was a combination of sweeping leaves in the garden and more deliveries. Going to be a busy week ahead.

Article of the weekend is this one by Matthew Parris in the Times arguing that the referendum on a NE assembly has done us a favour. Absolutely right. The whole thing is a total nonsense and it has been fun watching the Government and Lib Dems squirm. Even heard my opponent here on the radio saying that he had seen spoilt ballot papers that voters had scrawled: "We would like more popwers before we vote for it!" Yeah right!!

A great campaigner

When it came down to the popular vote there was no contest. Whatever else we might think about Americans they are not stupid and Kerry was not a good candidate. We also forget how good a campaign organisation the GOP is. We forget that in 2000 Bush was so far behind Gore 9 months from election day. Bush was not even supposed to be close. The miracle of the GOP campaign in 2000 was not so much they won but they got even within range of winning.

I don't think the democrats learnt their lesson and because of that they lost. Still I remember the original line up of Democrat candidates, when their were 12 of them. Apart from a General and Kerry they even had Al Sharpton on the platform!!

Mark Barker

Had to attend a funeral this morning of a great Chessington man. He was a member of the party and I had spent many an hour discussing with Mark the problems of the world. Had not seen so much of him in recent times. He had a real passion for young people and sport and giving opportunities for all to participate in sport. It was a genuinely happy funeral remembering the nature of the man.

Its make your mind up time in the US

I was on busines in the US during the last presidential election. I had planned to be in Washington DC for election day which was a mistake. Everybody had left to go back to their constituencies and it was no fun. By my good fortune I then had to go down to Fort Lauderdale in Florida (next door to the hanging chads of Broward County) and caught up with the excitement down there. On arrival at my hotel I was acosted by journalists offering $5k a night to buy my hotel room. It was tempting but I knew that the only place I woiuld be able to sleep would be the beach; and I had meetings to go to!!

Many people say we are like Americans, that we have things in common. I have travelled there often and whilst I agree it is a great nation I have to say we do not understand them, nor are we really like them. Take politics. There is no way that wearing religion on your sleeve, in the way Bush does, would be acceptable to British voters. Religion permeates and is an intrinsic part of politics in a way that would not be possible here. Even connecting politics and religion in this country is not acceptable.

Is it because they do not have the history of this nation to cling to that they use religion to give them identity? Who knows? It certainly gives a new meaning to 'God and country'.

Had a very good celebratory dinner this evening for one of our Councillors who has just completed 21 years of service on the Council.