LEAFLETS AND LETTERS

The last two and a half weeks have been busy with the distribution of my election leaflet and then, over the last few days, with the distribution of a personal letter to registered postal voters.  That's a lot of hard pavements to pound and a lot of letterboxes for trapped fingers.  The organisation of the leaflet distribution was pretty straight-forward as I had established a series of logical delivery rounds from both the 2009 County campaign and then fine-tuned for the  2011 District campaign.  The weather was mixed throughout.  Our local MP helped for a couple of sessions - the first in Bramford where we had sleet and snow, the second in Barham and Flowton in glorious weather.

Between all this pavement pounding I had to compose my postal vote letter and then by hand, individually fill in the salution and sign them.  Fortunately my signature is a swift swiggle which is a result of signing literally many thousands of company cheques over a lifetime's work.  Of course the salutions "Dear Mr Voter" needed to written as neatly as possible - a challenge with 900 letters to be done.  The most time consuming part however was the envelope stuffing.  However all were complete by Thursday afternoon for delivery between Thursday evening and this weekend.  Fortunately I had a helper on Friday so the task was halved and I got more delivered on Friday than I initially anticipated.

Here's my dining room table on Thursday afternoon once all the letters had been organised into the logic delivery rounds:-

During delivery it was amazing how many times the postal voter lived at the very end of a cul-de-sac!

It is difficult to estimate how many miles we both walked on Friday with so many drives to walk up and so many of the bungalows having side doors.  Inevitably though some letters had to be left over for Saturday and Sunday deliveries and it was a little disheartening to hand some over on Saturday morning only to be told that the voter had already filled in their ballot papers and posted them back.  A lesson for another campaign is to get these postal vote letters out earlier.  Or post them!

How the time has flown by - now there is less than two weeks to go to election day.  I suppose I ought to get a second leaflet out as for some people it is already two weeks since they received my first leaflet.  First though I need to give my poor feet a well earned rest - I don't think my legs are ready for that second leaflet distribution yet.

Feedback generally has been quite positive.  Some very pleasant people with easy conversations and "Good Luck" wishes.  Others who are quite proud never to have voted and the odd rude individual.  Probably my favourite conversation was with two more elderly ladies.  They were standing on a drive and I introduced myself and offered my leaflet.  "I'm not really interested in that sort of thing" was the response.  I said "Take a look anyway" and handed over my leaflet, then offered another to the second lady.  "Are you interested?" asked the first to the second and "Not really" came the reply.  I set off on my way but after a few yards turned round and catching their eye said "You know we are pledging to freeze council tax for four years".  "Ohhh!  You've got my vote!" came back the instance response.  I may need to remind them again on the 2nd May though.

In terms of the competition, I have crossed paths several times with the Liberal Democrat's main helper and bumped once into the UKIP candidate when we were both out in Little Blakenham.  Both the UKIP and the Liberal Democrats seem to have achieved a very comprehensive distribution of their leaflets.  No sign of either the Greens or Labour out and about on the campaign trail - unless you can tell me differently. 

"EXTREMELY TOUGH?"

I wasn't intending to write a post today, so soon after yesterday's Campaign Start posting but I've just read an article on the East Anglian website that has compelled me to blog about it. Before I became a member of our District Council I was aware of the general concept of housing benefit and that some poorer households got help with their rent and that social housing rents were subsidised. However I rather naively assumed that everyone paid council tax.  After all, there are 8 bands with the top band paying three times the amount of the lower band - a rather blunt and very progressive tax.  I'm guessing that most people assumed likewise as I like to think of myself as well read but without then knowing the in and out minutae of the housing benefit system.

That changed last year when the council members were briefed about the housing benefit and council tax changes.  We were advised that central government were reducing the payments by 10% but that pensioners would be protected so that the 10% savings would have to met by working age claimants.  In practice this has been significantly diluted by forcing second home owners to pay 100% council tax on their second properties (even if just used occasionally) and charging landlords a full council tax on unfurnished properties if their void periods between lettings exceeded a few weeks.  The general consensus across all political parties of the council felt that these two changes were reasonable.

That still left some working age benefit claimants having to pay more (or rather some) council tax.  In Mid Suffolk's case, going from zero to 5% and in Babergh's case from zero to 8.5%.  It appears from the East Anglian article that some Essex families are going from zero to 20%.  I must confess that I would have been happier to see the payments change to something other than a token contribition as these small amounts will be difficult to collect - 5% is the equivalent of four cigarettes a week or a lottery ticket and a small chocolate bar a week.

In the website/newspaper article you will see a Director of the New Policy Institute (whoever they are) saying "We are turning into a society where we are extremely tough on those at the bottom of the income pile".  Extremely tough!!!!  Expecting people to pay 5% towards their council services is extremely tough?  Council services are the bedrock of a civilised society - education, waste collection, highways, care of the elderly etc. - not some extravagent luxuries.  Someone paying just 5% of Band A towards these vital services is paying 1/30th of someone owning an average Band D property.

Anywhere else other than with these 'hidden' (ie. non-apparent) subsidies and I think the average person would be speaking out vocally about this enormous level of discount.  For example - going in to the petrol station and waiting in the queue to pay and they hear the cashier say to the person in front of them "That will be 5p a litre please for your diesel".  Or with a trolley full of shopping (say £60 to keep the maths simple) in the local supermarket and the person in front has an identical trolley full but is charged just £2.  There would be a loud chorus of "Why are they getting petrol at 5p a litre?" or "How come they're getting their trolley full for only £2?"  And if those people then went on to buy a full price packet of cigarettes or a lottery ticket with their savings then imagine the outcry!

Of course the person from that policy institute would be a voice in the background advising us that 5p a litre or £2 a trolley full is still extremely tough on these people at the bottom of the income pile.  The ultimate irony is that even their 5p's and £2s may be being paid by you and I anyway through the tax and benefit system. 

And that's why I chose as the first priority on my County election leaflet "To speak up for the 'squeezed middle'"  All those people who are working hard, pay a lot into the system, get little back out and who are now finding day-to-day budgeting to be extremely tough despite making all the best efforts themselves.

A NEW CAMPAIGN STARTS

Back in May 2012 I sat in front of the CS&NI Conservative Association's local government committee, a panel of nine prominent local party members, after I had put myself forward for selection as the Conservative candidate for the Gipping Valley Division in the 2013 County elections.  Afterwards I felt confident I had acquitted myself well to their questioning but I was still pleased to later receive their letter advising that I was through to the next stage.  Two candidates had put themselves forward for the division and therefore the next stage would be a ballot of party members in the division.  We both had to write an A4 length paper "Why I would like to be the County Councillor for the Gipping Valley Division" and these were then circulated, along with the ballot papers.  The ballot papers were opened on 29th June (co-incidentally, my birthday) and I was relieved to hear that I was selected.

One of the questions I had been asked at the selection interview was "If you were not selected for your own division, would you be prepared to stand elsewhere?"  I had answered that quite honestly by stating that I was putting myself forward to represent my neighbours and my locality and that I would much rather do that than stand elsewhere in a 'Safe Conservative seat'. 

That all seems a long time ago but now the campaign is about to get underway.  A couple of weeks ago I submitted my nomination form signed by ten local residents and on 22nd March a letter arrived from Electoral Services advising me that my completed form "is a valid nomination".  And meanwhile I had written the wording for my first leaflet and then collected those from the printer yesterday lunchtime.

Now begins the task of sorting all these into a series of delivery rounds and then getting them through all the letterboxes of the Gipping Valley Division.

So let battle commence!  Last time in the County election [2009] I received 739 votes which was just 59% of the votes the winning candidate achieved.  So it is a very big ask - a 'seismic swing' needed.  And what I don't know yet is which other parties will be putting forward candidates.  As well as my Lib Dem opponent, will Suffolk Together and Labour field candidates again and will UKIP enter the equation for the first time?  That will have to wait until 9th April when the 'Statement Of Persons Nominated' is published.

All I know now is that I'm going to have a very very busy April!

EU RAIDS SAVINGS AND FREE PRESS UNDER ATTACK

When it comes to the European Union then almost anything it does has an April 1st feel about it.  However reading the news today that the Cypriot bail-out involves the EU skimming up to 10% from ordinary savers' bank accounts still has an unreal feel about it.

Cyprus is the fifth Euro nation to need a bail-out.  Unlike the previous four however, the EU is proposing to do this by raiding the savings accounts at Cypriot banks and confiscating up to 10%.  They are calling it a tax.  But it is not a tax on the income - a percentage tax on the interest earned.  It is not a tax on a capital gain.  It is taking a piece of savers' capital - savings that have been put aside from taxed income.  So they are calling it a tax but it is not a tax.  It is simply the confiscation of savers' capital - from ordinary people like you and me.  If you have modest savings in a bank account can you be sure in the future that the EU won't be coming after a slice of your capital?  With its democratic deficit anything is possible with the EU.

Of course the Left don't like capital.  The LibDems and Labour's love affair with a mansion tax is no different.  It would be levied without any reference to how much income an individual might have.  Not content with taking tax from income they now want to skim capital.  Why you might ask?  Its not just the desire to spend more in the public sector but it is also that most base of human instincts - the envy of others - those with savings, those with bigger houses.

The Left even call a reduction in benefit payments to those living in subsidised housing larger than they need a tax - a "bedroom tax".  The next time YOU pay your mortgage or rent perhaps you may spare a moment or two to share the outrage of the Left that others getting free housing will receive 14% less in their housing benefit payment if they have a spare bedroom.  Or perhaps like me, you don't like the idea of the government borrowing money that our children will have to pay back in order to keep some people in free housing bigger than they need.

One other bit of news......

This Monday Labour and LibDems are voting together in an attempt to end our free press.  Not just those disgraceful hacking tabloids but also newspapers like the Daily Telegraph who broke the MP expenses scandal.  And not just newspapers but also websites that include news-related material.  So this blog and thousands of others could be brought under central politician control.  Centuries of tradition of publishing freedom (at least for newspapers, obviously not this blog!) are under threat from the Left.

So in the future they could stop the reporting on such things as the NHS killing thousands by the neglect of nurses apparently "too posh to wash" and too qualified to lower themselves to provide the basic care to sick and elderly patients.  Media controlled by politicians would make politicians' lives easier but would keep the public in the dark.

If you, like me, value the individual ahead of the state then you too will shun all this crazy left-wing ideology when you're at the ballot box.


UPDATE : Horse trading and compromise appear to have been the order of the day on Monday prior to the vote on press control in Parliament.  All sides claim to have won!

Here's a fascinating article on the folly of the EU raid on Cypriot bank accounts http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1363613568.php

AN HISTORIC DAY

 

Today is indeed an historic day.  After years of patient waiting the people of the UK have finally been promised a simple In/Out referendum on the EU once an extensive re-negotiation of our relationship and obligations has taken place.
 

There is one catch to this great news.  We will need a Conservative majority at the next General Election in 2015 if we are to achieve this goal.  Only the Conservatives promise first this re-negotiation and then the resulting arrangements to be put before the people of the UK for them to have their say.  Voting UKIP will only let Labour into power.  And Labour's position is perfectly clear, as set out by Milliband in Parliament this lunchtime:-
 

He simply cannot contemplate the idea of letting the people themselves have any say on this fundamental issue.  Big Brother knows best!

And the LibDems?  They seem fundamentally opposed to any re-negotiation with the EU.  They seem perfectly happy for us to march into an ever closer political union - with each star on the EU flag representing a subjugated region of the undemocratic, totalitarian EU empire ruled by unelected Brussels bureaucrats, officials and an European Parliament in which we have little influence or any power.

My personal preference would be to have had the referendum in this Parliament and I would have campaigned for an OUT vote.  To free ourselves as soon as possible from that monster - let them get on with their political union and all the concepts that their officials support (the latest frightening idea being to only allow journalists that support 'European Values' to register and work on newspapers).  We could use the vast amount of money we send to the EU to improve services, cut taxes or pay down the deficit.  However virtually every senior Conservative that I admire (Carswell, Hannan, Redwood, Fox, even Hague, to quickly name just five) accept that the arrangements set out by David Cameron in his speech today are the most realistic and workable in the situation.  Frankly they are better placed to understand both the politics and the logistics - I'm just a humble District Councillor.

However humble, I am still proud to say that here's a photo of me taken the day after the Where's My Referendum lobby of Parliament in March 2008.  I brought the placard home with me, first on the tube and then on the overground railway back to Ipswich. Its quite a conspicuous placard to carry on public transport!  I can however hold my head up and I will be able to tell any future grandchildren that I did my little part to secure their freedom just as previous generations of Britons did their bit against German Imperial expansion or Nazi aggression during the last century.

POLITICS IS SIMPLE

My sister has just sent me an article from a local newspaper ("Valley News").  The article has been forwarded from person to person (going viral is the computer lingo) using the subject matter heading "So very true".

And as I read it my thoughts became "Politics isn't complicated, it's actually very simple"

First, here's what the article said:-

IMPORTANCE OF TAX RETURN ACCURACY

HMRC has returned the tax return to a man in Evesham after he apparently answered one of the questions incorrectly.  In response to the question "Do you have anyone dependent on you?"the man wrote: "2.1million illegal immigrants, 1.1million crackheads, 4.4million unemployable Jeremy Kyle scroungers, 900,000 criminals in 85 prisons, plus 650 idiots in Parliament and the whole of the European Commission".  HMRC responded that the response he gave was unacceptable.  The man's response to HMRC was: "Who did I miss out?".

So how do I conclude from that article that politics is simple.  Well because politics fundamental boils down to this......

The sympathy with those on the Left in politics is with all the people mentioned in the article.

The sympathy with those on the Right in politics is with the person completing that tax return.

Just think on that simple but profound analysis the next time you're asked to cast your vote.  Who is your sympathy with?



(To be strictly accurate I would dispute the "650 idiots in Parliament" - there are a few sound people there but unfortunately a minority)

THE STATES AND THE KINGDOM - UNITED?

I feel a sense of depression today off the back of the American election result.  What struck me forcefully during the course of a previous US election result, the one where George Bush squeezed through based on a few hundred Florida votes out of the many million cast nationwide, came back equally strongly yesterday.  And the thing that struck me?  Just how equally divided the population were between two very different ideologies.  It seems remarkable to me, given two alternatives, that the results should come out so close - and in terms of the public vote, as opposed to the electoral college numbers, they were close, 49% plays 48%. 

One would normally think that between two choices in anything that one of those two choices would stand out as superior and thus be chosen by a substantial majority.  Yet the United States divided right down the middle, as near as damn it 50/50, when given the choice of Republican Romney and Democrat Obama.

Let's not kid ourselves that there isn't a vast gap between the competing ideologies. When I was younger I always understood in American politics that the Republicans were right-wing and the Democrats were central-left but that there were no significant socialists in the USA.  Obama has certainly moved the Democrats to the left with his European model of big government, high spending, high taxation and nationalised healthcare.  Class warfare, "soak the rich" and an ever intrusive government seem so far adrift of the "American Dream" of hard work, self-reliance, sound money and small government which made the USA such a great and successful nation.  Yet the country collectively hasn't moved it's vision - just half the nation.  One half has gone down that route but the other half still voted for the short-term pain required to create a sound economic environment that would create long-term growth and lasting prosperity.  Truly the states of America are no longer "United" and the ideological differences between some of these "united" states are truly profound.

That brings me be back to our United Kingdom.  At the last election England voted for a Conservative government. Scotland wanted nothing to do with that and the vast majority of their votes went either to a British socialist party or an even more left-wing Scottish socialist party.  Again a nation which calls itself "United" in name is in fact truly divided. 

Logically the time must come when amicable divorces are needed in both countries.  In 'America' some states could join together to go down the European EU model - with job destroying regulation, high taxes, disincentives to work and economic stagnation whilst other states could stay with their "American Dream" and prosperity.  In the UK a small part of the population will actually have a referendum in 2014 to choose whether Scotland goes alone in a Scottish Socialist Utopia.  The tragedy is that the English have no say in that referendum - one party in a potential divorce that is disinfranchised from the decision that could be a major factor in the future prosperity of the English.  The 2014 referendum should ask the views of the entire UK.  And sorry Mr Cameron, I know which way I would vote!