Delivering to Flats

People are always telling me about flats [US: apartments] where they can’t deliver election leaflets.
Yes, more and more people are living in seclusion, and things are set to get worse under a Liberal Democrat administration, when only the most serious criminals will go to prison, because they will abolish sentences of less than six months.
However I have yet to find a building with more than five flats that I couldn’t get into, though admittedly there are hazards.
I have sheltered accommodation on my patch where the warden was always very defensive. After she faced a tirade of abuse from a senior Liberal Democrat local councillor 18 months ago she is even more protective. I have contacts who let me in, and I then have to whiz round the building undetected. Today I exited under her nose, as she sat at her desk.

Today’s LibDem lie: As Member of the European Parliament Nick Clegg used to fly to Brussels in economy class, but always claimed expenses for first class travel and pocketed the difference.

Cleggmania

Two clouds hang in the stratosphere across Britain this week.
We wait for the ash from the Icelandic volcano to clear, and for Nick Clegg’s X-factor stardom to wane.
The Liberals want us to scrutinise their policies. Well how about their amnesty for 600,000 illegal immigrants for starters -- our schools can’t cope. Add in unlimited immigration, “providing they only live up north”.
Locally they petition to keep hospitals open, but nationally there's no commitment to increase funding for the NHS.
And do they not realise cancelling Britain’s nuclear deterrent forfeits our place on the UN Security Council?
Opinion polls are saying one thing, but on the doorstep I’m finding little extra enthusiasm for the Liberals, and no stomach for another LibLab pact, the most likely outcome unless the Conservatives gain two dozen LibDem parliamentary seats.

Surbiton Farmers’ Market

I’ve just eaten some delicious lamb merguez sausages that I picked up from Surbiton Farmers’ Market on Saturday.
This project was initiated by a group of community activists who are now standing as Conservative candidates for their local council.
The existing Liberal Democrat councillors thought the idea of a farmers’ market was so good that they’d try and claim the credit for it.
They issued one of their Focus newsletters advertising the first one.
However the Conservatives decided there were “teething problems” with the plans, and delayed the launch by a month, leaving the Liberals with egg on their faces -- free range I hope!

Sore Feet

After two weeks of campaigning my feet have turned red, where the serrated edges of my bicycle pedals have gnawed through the thinnest part of the soles of my shoes.
As I rest up I wonder whether the phone companies have played a trick on the opinion pollsters, and routed their calls through to voters on Mars.
I’m not finding a single person changing their party allegiance based upon the party leaders TV debate last week.
No doubt the legions of uncommitted voters have plumped for one party over another, but their support is very fickle, and many won’t actually be voting.
When I remind them that unlike the prime ministerial contenders, the leader of Britain’s third party had nothing to lose, they admit that closer scrutiny will sway them again.
I repeat: wait until the poll on May 6th.

More Power to Local People

Campaigning today with Justine Greening, Shadow Minister for Local Government, we learnt how the Conservatives will give planning powers back to local people.
Gone will be the Whitehall targets demanding a certain number of homes in a given time. Instead each community will assess it’s own needs for different types of properties such as affordable homes and larger family houses.
Big developers will have to consult with local residents from day one, rather than put in a ridiculous plan to start with, hoping not to have it watered down too much.
In short people will have a greater say over their own lives.

Where are the Liberals?

I’m temporarily lifting my ban on mentioning the Liberal Democrats simply to ask where are they?
Apart from the odd leaflet here and there, we’ve seen very little sign of them throughout Spelthorne and vicinity, and they are normally so industrious.
In fact they are contesting only one third of the vacant seats on neighbouring Hounslow council, leaving electors in many wards with no chance to vote Liberal at next month’s local elections.
So much for Nick Clegg’s pitch to be Prime Minister.
Hopefully this heralds a return to the two-party system, where people can make a straight forward choice between Big Government with Labour or Good Government with the Conservatives.

Opinion Polls

Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to outlaw political opinion polls altogether, like they do in some countries, they should be taken off the front page and put near the back, alongside the horoscopes.
Their main purpose is cheap publicity for the market research companies who conduct them.
I have already questioned their methodology in this blog, which largely explains why they are all so inconsistent.
If you speak to people you find that a vast number -- who will be voting in three weeks time -- have simply not applied themselves to the question of which prime minister they’ll be better off with.
So as I wrote before, I will be waiting for the exit poll at 10pm on polling day.

Teamwork

Party politics is the ultimate team exercise. If you don’t work together, sooner or eventually you will lose no matter what, but united you win.
So today I arrived a little late for duty, not least because I was a bit under the weather (man ’flu). I was sent off to deliver a hundred or so leaflets, which involved cycling up Surbiton Hill and back down the other side, and the same the way back.
I was then late for the campaigning session, but they put me in charge anyway.
Sometimes you do what you’re told, and other times you give directions.

Hoovering Votes

So what does the Chairman of a local Conservative Association actually do?
Well today’s job was to go to a neighbouring constituency and Hoover the carpet of the venue for their official General Election campaign launch, then stick up posters on the walls.
Unfortunately these were largely ignored by the audience, who were more interested in the fantastic views over South West London from the top of the Tolworth Tower.
They were treated to an equally impressive speech from their Conservative candidate Helen Whately, with Shadow Justice Minister Dominic Grieve as the support act.
Kingston & Surbiton is one of 24 Liberal held seats which need to change hands to usher in a Conservative Government.
Afterwards I was able to convince a floating voter that a new Conservative MP in Kingston would hold David Cameron to his commitment last Saturday to keep investing in the local hospital, something no other candidate can promise.

VOTE FOR CHANGE

Loose Lips Sink Ships

You can never be too careful campaigning in close proximity to parliamentary candidates, and we are continually warned to be careful what we say.
Campaigning is meant to be fun, but with mobile phones and scurrilous journalists all about, one inadvertent comment posted on YouTube can cause huge embarrassment.

Visit by Bicycling Baronet

My first job Friday morning was to pressure spray months of mud and grime off my trusty bicycle. This was in readiness for the journey to Surbiton to meeting Sir George Young MP, a.k.a. the Bicycling Baronet.

Here we are pictured by the Berrylands pub, for a campaign lunch stop. (From left to right: Berrylands ward council candidate David Hutchinson, Sir George, parliamentary candidate Helen Whately, myself and Berrylands ward candidate Karen George -- picture courtesy of the third ward candidate Peter Topp)
Unlike Sir George, I’m not yet up for taking my bike on the buses. However, hopping on the train is very efficient, though you have to avoid the morning and evening rush hours.

Vote For Change

Some people question the enjoyment of campaigning for votes at election time. Well for a seasoned politician it is always invigorating.
People always have something different to say, and they can often be more demanding than even Jeremy Paxman, the famous BBC inquisitor.
We had great fun this afternoon bumping into people at the shopping parades in Chessington.
Admittedly there’s a few that are still happy with Labour, and many still unsure. But the majority want to see the back of Gordon Brown.
Just one fly in the ointment though. Those that think voting for Britain’s third party can do the trick. When you point out that historically that Party has always propped up a Labour Government, they come to their senses and agree that the only vote for change is a vote for the Conservatives.

Kingston, worth fighting for!

That is the Conservative slogan to win back control of the local council next month, after eight years of financial mismanagement by Britain’s third party, with now the highest property tax in southern England. Plus a mansion tax in the pipeline!
Over a hundred local residents packed a cinema theatre in central Kingston upon Thames for the official launch of the Conservatives' Borough election campaign this Wednesday evening. A series of polished speeches by some of the council candidates were interspersed with their own video reports on local issues.
Then there were presentations by neighbouring MP Justine Greening and local parliamentary candidates Helen Whately and Zac Goldsmith.
Zac explained why only the Conservatives understand that preserving the environment is about so much more than carbon. For example hiking charges for parking near local shops just encourages people to drive further afield to hypermarkets. And people avoid residential parking charges by paving their front gardens, further blighting the street scene.
Above all, green taxes should no longer be stealth taxes, penalizing past choices, but be accompanied by incentives to promote responsible living.

British Election is Called

Five years we’ve been waiting, and the election is now underway.
Because they are so infrequent, British elections tend to be complicated, with floating voters expected to weigh up a huge range of issues, and live with their decision for a long time.
This election is different, because the Conservatives have a simple message, something politicians give their eyeteeth for.

Voting for anyone else could mean a hung parliament, and five more years of Gordon Brown.
So vote for a positive future . . . vote for change . . .
Vote Conservative.

The campaign to win back Kingston & Surbiton is launched with Eric Pickles and PPC Helen Whately (and myself in the centre of the back row). Kingston is a seat needed to give David Cameron a working majority.

Adult Content

I welcome comments on this blog from all over the world, though a new online hazard I’ve discovered is contributions in a foreign language of questionable taste.
A recent response to my China blog was -- not unreasonably -- written in Chinese characters. However it had to be discarded because it contained adult content, which whilst not explicit, was not relevant to the original blogpost.

Doing Business with China

Some of my family lived in China in the later part of the 19th century.
However since 1949 I have regarded mainland China as the red peril -- though Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book was rather fun to pass around at school.
China’s economic advancement is proving an ideological challenge. I’ll pay a little extra for goods of equivalent quality from anywhere but China. But if Chinese stuff is cheaper, then it’s costly to boycott it.
So what about investing there? Corruption is rife, and the penalties severe, though as four employees of Rio Tinto will find out this week, those imprisoned for economic crimes are treated far less harshly.
I’m putting this year’s tax-exempt savings into a new investment trust that will buy into companies that do business in China. Domestic consumer spending is set to take off, creating huge economic expansion.
Investing in China is not for the faint-hearted.

Obamacare: Pyrrhic Victory

So American Democrats have invested all their political capital in forcing through a healthcare plan against the wishes of most hard working Americans.
The hugely bureaucratic new system will cost an arm and a leg, with little benefit for the so-called uninsured. In fact it will cost them too in the form of compulsory levies.
Just like in Europe before the advent of socialised healthcare, and as in America today, no one was ever turned away from hospital for want of emergency treatment and without the means to pay.
By all means address the two key issues of insurers blacklisting clients with “pre-existing conditions”, and capping claims resulting in two million medical bankruptcies per year.
But don’t bankrupt the entire US healthcare system in the process.
And don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for the guy!

Out of Power

You don’t need to be a student of 20th century British politics to understand why Britain’s third party have been out of power since the 1920s.
Just come and read the vindictive propaganda they distribute in Spelthorne. Indeed they seem to be resorting to personal attacks right across the land, which will only ever attract the protest vote. It's not the British way.
Last autumn they cheekily questioned whether in fact a retiring local councillor was actually ill, right at the time he was in intensive care at the local hospital.
And now they query the credentials of one of the best up and coming Conservative politicians in the country by detailing his previous applications for vacant parliamentary seats.
The truth is that competition to become a Conservative parliamentary candidate is a hundred times greater for Britain’s third party, so hardly surprising even the best don’t succeed the first time.

Less Nudity Please, We’re British

The Blair Babes were hopeless at arresting the tide of permissiveness during he last 13 years, so let’s hope Cameron’s Cuties will be tougher.
The Noughties saw a massive rollout of strip-joints across Britain after Labour relaxed the planning laws in 2003, allowing lap dancing clubs to masquerade as ordinary bars.
One is now threatened in Staines High Street, though so far ways have been found to prevent them popping up in Spelthorne.
I’m not sure we need to go so far as Iceland last week, who with almost half their legislators female, have made it illegal for any business to profit from nudity by its employees.

Great Candidate: Rotten Government

Obviously the Labour Party is seriously bad news for Britain, as we slip lower and lower down world league tables, and social cohesion is disintegrating whilst the gap between rich and poor is at its widest for a generation.
But here in Spelthorne we have a marvel in the Labour’s Parliamentary candidate, Adam Tyler-Moore.
Following my blog two months ago he’s still leaving his leaflet hanging out of letterboxes. Also the content lets him down badly, as it's so nasty and scurrilous that only the most loyal Labour voters would appreciate it.
However the man is so polite, personable, knowledgeable and well presented, and he’s being very well received on the doorstep.
And boy, does he get around. He’s like a ferret, as each day I come across more and more residents he has spoken to in every town and village, right across the constituency.
He deserves second place in Spelthorne at the General Election, and then to earn a safe seat elsewhere next time.

Five More Years of Brown?

As I speak to people up and down the land (yesterday in north Manchester), the answer comes back the same:

We do not want five more years of Gordon Brown.

Funny thing is when you ask them if they’ll be voting for Cameron’s Conservatives they don’t seem quite so sure, as if there is some kind of third option for Prime Minister -- which they have to agree there isn’t.
A vote for any of the minor parties is a wasted vote when it comes to turfing out Gordon Brown.
That is the conundrum the opinion pollsters face, complicated by a serious flaw in their methodology.
You see, when you ask floating voters how they voted five years ago they genuinely can’t remember, and so make it up -- and say Conservative if they’re leaning that way now. So their opinion is excluded by the pollsters when they weight the raw data to match the actual result in 2005, skewing their prediction for 2010.
Best hang on for the exit poll at 10pm on May 6th.

British Airways 1200 : Unite 300

That’s the number of strikebreakers claimed by each of the sides in the BA cabin crew strike.
One could also argue it is the margin of victory by the airline, though wise of them not to crow about it.
We’ll see how they each fare in the second round next weekend.
In the olden days unions used to go on strike, and stay out until either their demands were met, or they capitulated. These days with union power restrained, striking is very much a part-time business.
Even Monday afternoon’s picket at Hatton Cross on the outskirts of Heathrow (pictured) was a rather feeble protest, though I was impressed by the number of hooting motorists driving past -- many too young to remember the union militancy of the 70s and 80s.

Nice to see a strike breaking Jet2.com aircraft (also pictured) at Heathrow Terminal 5, normally serving low cost routes from northern England, this time easing the strain for hard pressed BA passengers.

British Airways Strike

There’s a whole load of stuff we’re not being told about the British Airways cabin crew strike, and one might wonder why?
Hints are dropped about disunity within the trades union, Unite, which seriously hampers their ability to negotiate with the employer. Key union people will not even share the same room, let alone talk to each other
BA boss Willie Walsh is determined to break the strike, and with the rest of the airline’s workforce already having conceded cuts in wages and conditions, there is very little sympathy for the cabin crew.
Everyone is volunteering to man the planes in their absence, and many are still being trained.
Then there is the issue of travel perks. I am assured Willie Walsh will not go back on his promise to cancel staff travel concessions for anyone who walks out. As many of the cabin crew live in Scotland and the South of France, commuting to Heathrow Terminal Five to report for duty, their lifestyles will take a quite a hit -- assuming their jobs are still there when they return.
The outcome of this dispute could well determine the state of industrial relations in the UK for several years ahead.

BUPA Healthcare

BUPA is a major employer in Staines, Egham and Ashford, and their need to cut back on staff is a double-whammy.
The staff deserves sympathy, over 100 of whom face redundancy.
But more worrying is the decline in healthcare expenditure in the UK.
The Conservatives’ commitment to ring-fence state spending via the NHS is good, but that is not enough.
We spend far too little overall on healthcare in Britain, barely half what they spend in America for example.
I’ve been doing my bit recently. I thought I’d save £100 with a special offer on a BUPA healthscreen. After all the further screening tests the doctor recommended -- based on lifestyle and family medical history -- I’ve spent £3,300.

Daylight Saving Time

It’s at this time of year that I reflect if Europe were serious about climate change then our clocks would go forward this weekend.
America has been doing this for four years now, and it is an entirely cost free measure (and probably even saves lives on the roads in the evenings).
It is also logical because the length of daylight is now much closer to when we’re all agreed about putting the clocks back at the end of October.

The Euro

I sailed to France for the day yesterday, and it's a boon having to have just one foreign currency when you go abroad -- well two if you include the dollar for America.
I hope the euro survives the economic crisis in Greece.

Cable ruins Cable

The biggest threat to Cable is Cable.
Cable is the term used by currency traders for the Sterling–US Dollar exchange rate (dating from the 19th century when the rate was transmitted by a transatlantic cable).
The prospect of a hung parliament this spring is sending jitters round the world, and the value of the British pound rapidly towards a 25-year low.
Traders fear the worst if vacillating Vincent Cable were to become involved with Britain’s economic policy.
Far from predicting the current crisis Cable warned merely about personal debt in 2003, and later conceded that the global financial crisis was actually triggered by the US mortgage market about which he knew very little.
Back in 1999 he campaigned vigorously for light touch regulation of financial services, meaning his recent denunciation of market excesses ring hollow.
These conflicting views are typical of Britain’s third party which he represents, and offer no path to recovery.

Healthcare Choice

Last week I had a routine screening test at a top London Hospital -- something which a third of American adults have done, but you’d be lucky to get under Britain’s free NHS.
Everything was wonderful after the initial indignity of being frog-marched to the cashier to present my credit card. (They have a lot of Middle Eastern clients whose approach to settling bills is more relaxed).
At £1,200 for a four-hour stay, it made my prawn sandwich lunch the most expensive in London.
At least the Labour Government still allows people the choice to spend their money on healthcare, instead of say exotic foreign holidays. Though I remember Labour even banned those in 1966 when you couldn’t take more than £50 abroad each year -- documented in your passport.

Eton Boys

I’m still reflecting on what I thought was the most exciting event at the Conservative Party Spring Conference in Brighton last weekend.
An impromptu protest by about fifty left-wing activists who almost broke through the police cordon at the hotel entrance.
They delivered their chant with so much energy.

Eton boys: . . . off our streets!

Eton boys: . . . off our streets!

Interspersed with

Get rid of the rich!

Well who do they think pay the taxes that subsidise their Bohemian lifestyle?
If only that enthusiasm could be channelled into more productive pursuits, Britain would be great again.