Tuesday 29 September 2009

Canvassing in Eastleigh

Last night I joined Maria Hutchings (Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) and her team for some campaigning in the Eastleigh Constituency. Maria has worked so hard in Eastleigh over the last two years and she has a real prospect of defeating Chris Huhne - at the General Election whenever that may come. We found many new Conservatives last night and got such a warm welcome on the doorstep. The people I speak to are saying to me that the Conservatives are ready for Government - and can't wait for a General Election.
Maria Hutchings

Monday 21 September 2009

Its Conference Season

Party Conference Season is upon us and in two weeks time I will be up in Manchester at the Conservative showpiece - this week however the Liberal Democrats are in Bournemouth.
On a day when a Poll conducted for the BBC's Newsnight programme - showed that over a third of British Adults do not know who Nick Clegg is the Lib Dems were trying to get their policies across to the British public. At a national level many people who vote Lib Dem - do not know what they stand for, I know I have spoken to them on the doorstep. Many people will vote for them because they see them as a middle ground in fact they are not and that was proved today. This week gives the Lib Dems an all too rare a chance to get their message across - but paradoxically this proves negative for them.

Today they revealed a new property tax, a charge of 0 .5% would apply to the value of a property above £1m. So if a home was worth £1.5m the 0.5% tax would apply to £500,000 of it, meaning the owner will have to pay £2,500 a year. They claim that by taxing the middle classes and the rich even more they will be able to help those on the minimum wage. However people can see through their policy and understand that taxing the wealth creators even more is not good for the economy as a whole. On another note as Iain Dale says - "just because you live in a big house it doesn't mean you can find another couple of grand to pay the taxman. What about a retired couple who have lived in a house all their lives and never dreamed it would become so valuable? Where are they supposed to come up with the readies from? Well, where? I'm waiting...".


Nick Clegg adresses his troops: Source Telegraph Blogs

Gordon uses the 'C' Word

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. August is a sort of mini recess in the Council World - with a break in most meetings. It doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything though in fact I have been as busy as ever. I have been following through various pieces of casework in Alamein Ward as a result of residents responses to our Intouch Publication. These range from housing issues to fixing the road, cutting back trees and removing graffiti. All this coupled with a new full time job has ensured a busy end to the summer.
On the national stage as we move into the Conference Season - there has been some interesting revelations taking place. Gordon Brown has used the 'C' word for the first time 'Cuts' - and finally admitted that its not just a straight choice as he used to put it between Labour investment and Tory cuts - both parties will have to make cuts in order to try and balance the nations books, which he has ruined over the last ten years. On another note it is the first day proper of the Lib Dem Conference today - and there will be comment about this posted tonight.