Thursday, 29 April 2010
Yesterday Showed New Labour's Detachment From Ordinary Working People
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
The Second Debate Should Be On Terrestrial TV
Thursday, 15 April 2010
Campaign Day 10 - A Conservative Surge In The North East
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Campaign Day 9 - Brown's Apology Over Banks Doesn't Go Far Enough
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
Campaign Day 8 - A Radical Decentralisation Of Power From London And Whitehall To Our Communities
I popped down to the North Eastern launch of the manifesto at Cullercoats, where there was a real buzz in the air – a real sense of enthusiasm and excitement. The manifesto contains a very central idea – trusting the people.
It is based on the idea that power should be redistributed from London and Whitehall to local communities and local people. In the North East, politicians in London have ignored our region for too long. We need passionate North Eastern representatives in Parliament to stand up for our region and our area. And we also urgently need to kind of radical decentralisation of power from Whitehall to local people set out by the Conservatives today.
Please feel free to add comments. You can donate to my campaign for change via the following link: http://tinyurl.com/y9whlnx
Monday, 12 April 2010
Campaign Day 7 - Tackling Anti Social Behaviour In North Durham
The first week of the campaign is almost over and the sun is still shining in
As well as canvassing and leafleting today, I spent some time talking to Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling MP, on a visit to the North East today, about the problems of anti social behaviour in
That is why, as Chris Grayling, set out to me today, Conservatives will take tough measures to crack down on the anti social behaviour that affects ordinary, hard working people the most. . This includes giving the Police the power to take instant action against troublemakers and louts, including the power to confiscate items. He also outlined measures to ensure that the Police spend more time on the beat and less time filling in forms.
We need to take real action to fight back against anti social behaviour and reclaim our streets from louts. We need to stop the anti-social minority making life a misery for the hard working majority.
Why Should We Believe Brown's Promises After Years Of Failure To Deliver?
I’m reading an excellent book at the moment by Giles Radice, the former MP for
Where Attlee, Bevin, Cripps and Bevan presided over lasting and necessary social reform, Brown, Balls and Harman have presided over economic collapse and widening inequality. Under Gordon Brown’s stewardship, manufacturing industry has shed almost a million jobs while the highly paid gamblers in the City of
Brown may have promised radical reform today, but why should we believe it any more than the promises made in 1997 (anybody remember the promise of a referendum on PR in 1997 - repeated this year or the promise of House of Lords reform) or the promise of full employment made in the 2005 manifesto. Why should we trust Gordon Brown to be a reformer of public services when he constantly blocked Tony Blair's attempts at reform?
To put it another way, why should we trust Labour to undertake radical reforms when Gordon Brown has failed to deliver that reform in the past 13 years?