Today is my birthday – I’m still (just) slightly younger than the actor playing Doctor Who.
Our campaign to beat Barbara Keeley MP – Harriet Harman’s second-in-command – is stepping up a gear here in Worsley & Eccles South. However, unlike Salford Labour who received big backing from the trade unions, local Conservatives are reliant on small local donations to fund our campaign activities.
Can you help our campaign by buying me a (virtual) birthday drink? A few donations of just £2.50 will soon stack up – and they’ll all help towards beating Labour here in Worsley & Eccles South at the General Election. Surely that’s something we can all raise a glass to…?
The other week there was a ludicrous story in the Daily Mail suggesting that Conservative candidates were not allowed to post on Twitter without have their tweets vetted first.
However, I will not be tweeting from the meeting of Salford City Council tomorrow morning. The Mayor has decreed that Twitter is not allowed.
Out of respect for the Mayor, I shall avoid Twitter during tomorrow’s Council meeting and then I hope that we have an open and honest debate about the use of social media in Council before we reconvene for the March meeting.
I make no apologies, however, for making it clear that I believe that this is a bad decision and a backwards step for democracy.
Salford City Council holds meetings at a very inconvenient time for most people – during the daytime on a Wednesday. This makes them inaccessible for most working people, and makes it very difficult for people in certain professions (teachers come to mind but there are many more) from considering running for Council.
The public gallery is usually empty. Our Council meetings make decisions that affect local residents across Salford, but we make it as difficult as possible to actually allow residents to see democracy in action.
Twitter changes that. I can get across to local people what is happening in our Council meetings, together with the sterling work that the Manchester Evening News is doing by covering our Council meetings live. I understand that 500 people logged on to watch coverage of the January Council meeting – and that’s 500 more than turned up in the public gallery. Now that outlet to the communities of Salford has gone, in a flash.
I make no apologies for wanting to make our Council meetings more accessible. I will continue to argue for more transparency and openness in local government and particularly here in Salford City Council. I hope that some local residents benefitted from the insights that I was able to give at the previous Council meetings and that I will be able to do so again in future.
Thousands of people across the country, including here in Worsley & Eccles South constituency, are feeling let down and taken for granted by Labour. It’s clear that many local people are abandoning Labour and are considering voting for the Conservatives – some for the first time in a long time, and others for the first time in their lives.
It is a big step to vote for a new Party, and it’s only natural to be reluctant to do so unless you are sure that change will be for the better. Thousands of people here in Salford, and many more across the country, have already pledged to make the switch and vote Conservative (including Ian from Congleton, featured in the video above). The Conservative Party has changed – only the Conservatives will stand up for the interests of ordinary local people in Worsley & Eccles South. Here’s ten reasons why:
The NHS – our number one priority
We believe in a National Health Service that is free and available to everyone in our society. Unlike Labour, we will increase spending on healthcare every year.
Dealing with Labour’s Debt Crisis
Labour are spending more on debt interest repayments than on tackling child poverty. We will cut the deficit quicker than Labour, and begin sooner, so we can spend your taxes on the things that matter. Conservative plans will help keep mortgage rates lower for longer.
Creating new jobs
Unemployment has gone up under Labour and one in five young people now can’t find a job. We will Get Britain Working by creating 450,000 new apprenticeships, college and training places over two years. As part of our plan to build a more balanced economy, where Britain makes things again, new businesses will pay no tax on the first ten jobs they create.
Protecting the poorest
Under Labour the poor have got poorer, with 900,000 more people living in severe poverty. We will keep the minimum wage, child benefit, tax credits, and other measures to help working families, and take action to deal with the long-term causes of poverty.
Supporting families
Under Labour, we have the highest family breakdown in Europe. We will support marriage in the tax system and end the couple penalty in the tax credit system, extend flexible working to all families with children under the age of 18, and recruit 4,200 more Sure Start health visitors to give families the support they need.
Helping keep bills down and clamping down on consumer rip-offs The recession has made it more difficult to make ends meet. We will work with local authorities to freeze council tax for two years. Our ‘green deal’ will give people energy-saving equipment to reduce energy bills. We will stop store cards charging excessive interest rates and prevent energy companies from making unfair profits on prepayment meters.
Fairness for pensioners
One in five pensioners are living in poverty under Labour. We will increase the State Pension every year and link it back to earnings, and protect Disability Living Allowance and Attendance Allowance. We will keep the winter fuel allowance, free TV licences and free bus passes.
Fighting back against crime
Under Labour you are three times more likely to be a victim of violent crime if you live in a deprived area. We will cut paperwork and get police out on the street, end Labour’s scheme of allowing prisoners out early, and make it clear that anyone caught carrying a knife can expect to be prosecuted and face a prison sentence.
Building more affordable homes
There are 700,000 more on housing waiting lists than when Labour came to office. We will give councils and communities powerful new financial incentives to build more affordable homes. We will also protect and respect the rights and security of social housing tenants.
You know the feeling. Something you have wanted for so long, that has driven you and been consuming. You’ve invested your time, your energy and your commitment. You hoped your feelings would be reciprocated. At first, you thought they were. What you wanted, they wanted and the early signs were promising.
But then, a few years in, the warning signs started to appear. They stopped listening to everything you were saying. Things you wanted you were told you couldn’t have. Then, you start to think they are actually not interested in you at all and you realise you’ve been used.
You discover the things they’ve given you were bought with other people’s money. You feel betrayed and you resolve to end it, never able to trust them again.
Yes, that’s exactly how thousands of people in Salford feel this Valentine’s Day as they end their 13 year relationship with New Labour. Fallen out of love with Labour this Valentine’s day? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Like most local residents, I’m appalled by the latest schemes put forward by Peel Holdings – they would lead to a wholesale destruction of the local environment in Worsley, Eccles, Irlam and Cadishead, to the severe detriment of our local communities. I hope that the Council treat the plans with the disdain that they deserve at the next stage of the Core Strategy process.
However, let’s not forget that Peel are merely doing the bidding of the Labour Government on this issue. The Government’s regional planning guidance, imposed on the people of Salford, demands that we make space for over 30000 new homes as well as heavy industry on our green land. The Council’s own plans, although less dramatic, would still wipe out huge swathes of Green Belt land on Barton Moss and green field land at Burgess Farm.
A Conservative Government would scrap the dangerous regional planning guidance and return powers to local people – allowing our precious green land to be protected.
I’ve made it clear in the past that I feel that our local newspapers have been treated very badly by Guardian Media Group – jobs have been cut and coverage slashed at their regional titles in order to prop up the loss-making Guardian and Observer.
I hope that our local titles are treated better under Trinity Mirror than they have been by GMG – but I’m not holding my breath. The MEN Media group staff, who have already been through a huge upheaval with job losses and the closure of local offices including the Advertiser office on Church Street in Eccles, now face a further period of uncertainty, and I wish them all the best.
It’s really sad to see a Prime Minister so focused on the interests of his own Party rather than the interests of the country that he is suddenly prepared to embrace an alternative electoral system when the polls suggest he is about to lose. As David Cameron put it:
“Thirteen years into government, and 90 days from a general election – what was it that attracted him to changing the voting system?”
So there you have it – from the mouth of their candidate. A vote for the Liberal Democrats in Worsley & Eccles South is a vote to prop up Gordon Brown and his discredited Labour Government. Our local communities desperately need change – and the only way to get that change at the forthcoming General Election is to vote Conservative. A vote for anyone else just helps Gordon Brown and Labour.
Hazel Blears is on her soapbox again, praising a scheme designed to encourage women to be community leaders. She rightly praises some stalwarts of the Salford community, but there’s a fair dose of hypocrisy here; Councillors are supposed to be community leaders, and Salford Labour’s record when it comes to female Councillors is nothing short of rotten. I certainly won’t be taking any lectures from Hazel Blears on opportunities for women, when in her own backyard Salford Labour have failed miserably.
Of 36 Labour Councillors here in Salford, only 7 (19%) are women, and I understand that 2 of those are standing down at the forthcoming election, both replaced as Labour candidates by men. In Labour’s ruling cabinet, it is even worse, with only 1 woman and 9 men.
Contrast that with the Conservative group which has 7 women out of 13, including the leader and deputy leader, all selected on merit. Of the 7 remaining Liberal Democrat Councillors, 4 are women.
Hazel should show some real leadership and get her own house in order before getting on her high horse.
Today the Conservative Party has set out a new model of economic growth, a model very different from the one pursued by Gordon Brown. It sets out our plans for a private sector recovery driven by business investment and exports, instead of consumer borrowing and government debt.
For the first time ever, we are also setting out eight benchmarks – the Benchmarks for Britain – against which we are happy for the next Conservative Government to be judged. Achieving them over the next Parliament would mean we have put Britain back on her feet and are building a new British economic model, very different from the debt driven model of the past.
At the end of the Parliament, you will be able to use these benchmarks to hold your government to account over whether our economy is more stable, more balanced and more competitive.
Tomorrow lunchtime (Sunday 31st January) I’ll be a guest on Andy Crane’s Sunday lunchtime show on BBC Radio Manchester, along with Liverpudlian comedian Steve Gribbin.
You know the feeling. Something you have wanted for so long, that has driven you and been consuming. You’ve invested your time, your energy and your commitment. You hoped your feelings would be reciprocated. At first, you thought they were. What you wanted, they wanted and the early signs were promising.
We’re only a few months from the last possible date for a General Election, and yet in the last few weeks 
A Message From George Osborne