It's my Birthday...

My “friends” marked my birthday with a type of game of consequences. Most of the results should not, for my sake, be shared (“What three words describe John?” “What item of clothing should John wear at the next Golf Club medal?”) but one is directly relevant:

“When canvassing, how should John greet people when they open the door?”

That’s something that’s always worried me: it is important to engage with voters, my sense from the last time I stood was that most people genuinely like to meet candidates, but equally it is an intrusion to knock on the door and disturb them particularly at a time when party politics is unpopular (although when was it popular?). So I thought I’ll get some good ideas. Here are the seven answers. One was mine.

Morning campers!

Alright, sign up NOW.

Poop and scoop with the Tories.

Hello. I’m standing for the Council. I thought you’d like to meet your candidate.

Hold a gun to their head and say “vote or you’re finished”.

Hello MTV and welcome to my crib.

Hey Babe. How you doin? Vote for me..

 I’ll think about which ones to use. They won’t all work well.

It's Raining Leaflets

I’ve now delivered (with the help of a team of helpers) my first leaflet and the Conservative manifesto across the Division to about 2,500 homes. Even to those with no letterboxes (I remember last time wondering why so many homes in this area have no place to leave the post, forgetting that it is probably to avoid receiving things like my leaflets).

The delivery gave me a chance to talk to people. Not enough to be statistically significant but enough to get a sense of what concerns they have. There’s a frustration with politics and politicians, a distrust of Europe, the Euro and ineffective action at Westminster and a perceived lack of fairness in dealing with the economic situation. After discussion people accepted that there was little a County Councillor could do to solve the Cypriot banking crisis. There was also some acceptance that the current Government had a difficult job to do and it’s not obvious that anyone else – even UKIP – would do things better.

These issues of course are not ones that are relevant for the County although they may drive how people vote – or even whether they vote at all. I hope that over the next few weeks I can persuade people to look at the local position and to consider the approach they want their local councillor to take - and in particular that I would bring my financial experience to cut through the council bureaucracy to make sure that OUR money is spent where it’s needed. 

The Local Papers (2)

There’s a few relevant things in the last couple of week’s local papers.

The Conservative manifesto launch was covered; an important point is that the manifesto is consistent with the Conservative ethos of value for money and enterprise but also reflects a survey of 10,000 households across the County to identify people’s priorities. A link to the manifesto is here… although having walked around the Division in the snow and rain delivering copies, hopefully readers will already have a copy that isn’t in the bin yet.

The launch of the BamburghMemories facebook page set up by the Bamburgh Heritage Trust is covered with an illustration of an old postcard. The page has a growing number of photos as a fascinating glimpse into another life and is an important part of the Trust’s activities in widening knowledge of Bamburgh’s heritage. Hence the name.

There’s good coverage of Belford’s flood defence system which has been developed in conjunction with Newcastle University and the Environment agency by storing excess water in overflow ponds so the run after heavy rain is slowed down. It’s an innovative idea (it says) which could be used elsewhere.

The European Regional Development Fund has provided additional funding to help the county's broadband campaign, which should help businesses access better broadband services. There’s a link on the right on this page with information aboiut the campaign and which lets you sign up to provide evidence of need for better broadband services. Please sign up if you haven’t already.

There a brief summary of the Cemex presentation of their plans for Cragmill Quarry. I went to the exhibition, covering the expansion of the quarry (which is broadly consistent with the original plans as outlined in the book “Further Aspects of Belford”), the eventual plan for de-commissioning and the potential use of a railhead to increase the market for the stone quarried there. There’s some implications for a few houses in the last point which have to be dealt with but overall it looked beneficial to me.

And there’s a lot of coverage of the stranded ship at the Farne Islands. So far it’s an interesting diversion rather than a cause for environmental concern.

The plans for a development of houses (affordable and at market), holiday lodges  and a health care village for older residents between Kingsfield and Seahouses Golf Club are summarised. This will be on a greenfield site at the edge of the village so issues of scale, infrastructure and so on need to be resolved but there are advantages of providing a mix of housing and some employment opportunities. The plans are only outline at this stage.

And finally, there’s a brief note that Pat Scott (LD) is retiring as a County Councillor having served the Division well for 18 years. Good luck to her in her retirement. I hope that if I am elected n 2^nd May I will be able to earn the respect of our electorate in the way that she has done over her 18 years in office.

I'm afraid to tell you there's no money left

That was the quote left by Labour’s Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2010. It was a joke – but like many jokes it was true.

And whatever criticisms are made of the Government’s economic and welfare policy that fact mustn’t been forgotten: there isn’t any money to do all the things people would otherwise like to do. The public finances were left in a real and unsustainable mess and most of the growth in the 2000’s was artificial on the back of borrowed money fuelling asset price inflation (mostly houses).

A further constraint is that unlike say Italy or Japan, a lot of the money the Government borrows is lent by people and organisations in other countries. Any interest therefore is paid away from the country and becomes a real cost to the UK economy. It’s therefore essential – really essential - that the Government keeps paying low interest rates – hence the initial determination to keep an AAA credit rating.

From the beginning the Government has had to balance:

- the need to get public spending under control

- the need to do it in a way broadly acceptable to the public

- the benefit of growing the public sector

- the need to reduce the riskiness of banks by reducing their balance sheets and increasing their capital strength

- different priorities of the two parties in the coalition.

And from the beginning the approach to cutting the deficit initially maintained the credit rating and even when it was reduced interest rates on UK government debt remains low


The latest budget has to be seen in this context and it is a good effort to provide some stimulus and help to the economy at a time, to repeat the quote, when there’s no money left. And criticisms of it should reflect the fact: there's no money left.

That informs what the Council has to do. As I've said before, I care about spending money wisely. Quality is important but so is value. Even more important is being transparent about how the money is being spent. It comes from taxpayers: they should be able to see where it goes. I note that the Council tax demand which I've just received does not, as in earlier years, include a summary of next year's budget or this year's outturn. Or, if they were concerned about wasting paper, a reference to where a summary can be found easily. That's a shame and it's something I'd want to change.

I'm glad you asked me that

The trouble with meeting voters is that they ask you questions; the job of a politician is, of course, not to answer them. But sometimes it’s good to try.

 

 

Someone asked me the other day: if you were elected, what is the one thing you would want to do? I have listed the reasons I want to stand here on my blog, and I’ve referred to them in my leaflet/introductory letter, but what would be the one thing?

 

 

I said it would be to help create a consistent planning framework for the area.

 

 

I would feel I’d done my job if, in four years time, each Parish (Adderstone/Lucker, Bamburgh, Beadnell, Belford, North Sunderland) had a “neighbourhood plan” (or we all had one plan) to give us more control over development in our area.

 

 

At first sight, this isn’t a very gripping or demanding objective. It’s not a promise that local unemployment disappears. Or that it will not rain during my four term. It doesn’t deal with the day to day provision of services locally, or the grind of looking at Council expenditure and trying to improve value for money and how the figures are reported. But it is important. The planning framework is a critical factor in our quality of life. This area tends to have things done to it. We need to change that, not to discourage development but rather to encourage helpful development.

 

 

A “neighbourhood plan” establishes general planning policies for the development and use of land in a neighbourhood, usually a parish council area. Provided that they are supported by voters in an area and they are consistent with the County’s plan then they become the framework for development in that area. It’s a new (2011) power given to communities and the first one has recently been completed. The Bamburgh Division, with its emphasis on tourism, its part time and low paid jobs, its expensive housing, its relatively high proportion of elderly people, and so on, needs an overall framework that is locally developed and approved.

 

 

The Council is preparing a strategic plan at the moment; it is possible until 20 March to comment on a draft here (and I’d urge you to do so). Once this plan has been agreed, I think we should start work in this Division to prepare our own.

 

So that is my answer. And why.

My First Letter

As well as delivering the manifesto, we’re also going to include a letter from me introducing myself as a council candidate. I’ve been a relatively late selection so although I stood in 2008 it seemed sensible to say something about me and why I’m standing. The letter is here..

It took some thought to try and capture why I want to stand and what’s important to me in a way that was readable, concise and genuine. It’s accompanied by a photo; although (because?) I like photography I have very few pictures of me; I sent the local Conservative office the two or three I had and they selected one of me on the beach in a pink sweater (unthreatening, apparently).

There’s a big logistical effort in getting the manifesto and leaflet out to every household; there’s over 2,000 of them so it means carving up the area and persuading people to help; although I want to do as many as possible, it’s just too big an area to cover individually by Easter.

I looked out of the window on the first planned day of delivery to see snow on the ground  - that plus cold weather doesn't help the logistics. And almost inevitably, as I started to deliver leaflets I saw Alan Beith had just posted one of his own: he is lucky to get funding to post them, I thought, as I stepped in another puddle.

 

The Manifesto

We want to get the manifesto out early to let people know what a conservative-led council would prioritise. We’re delivering a hard copy to every household before Easter.

It’s worth reading (here's a link). There are five simple things that would be new priorities: free parking; a jobs fund; repairing roads; controlling wind turbines and freezing council tax for the next four years. And in addition, there’s support for other issues like three tier education where there’s local need and recognition to do more for affordable housing.

There’s going to be continued pressure on money available to the council. It’s important to prioritise.

Education, Education, Education

I have talked to some people involved in the school system. It’s clear that funding cuts are a major concern, but there’s also an understanding for the reasons. Also of concern is the level of support given by Council officials to the schools in dealing with the cuts. They need to make sure that there’s a consistency in their advice: what happens to the schools in Belford and Seahouses impacts Alnwick and Berwick and vice versa. It reinforces my view that in a rural area the three tier system is something that should be strongly supported as long as parents want it.

The Local Papers (1)

A scan of this week’s local papers shows a few interesting things relating to Belford and the decision by the Council to keep Council tax unchanged for 2013/14 (hardly surprising in an election year). The detail of the budget hasn’t been released yet – or if it has I haven’t seen it – but it looks as though the freeze has been at the expense of front line services with few new ideas.

Three items relating to Belford caught my eye:

- the appointment of the deputy head of the middle school as the new head;

- the support for a new platform so the station can be reopened by North Sunderland parish council;

- the conflict at Detchant between the successful Bedmax business (good to see in our area) and the residents suffering the resulting heavy traffic on unclassified roads. I don’t know anything about the subject yet but this feels like a subject that will run.

Step 1: Selection

I wanted to stand but first had to be approved and then selected. Standing for a political party means there’s a bit of process to go through: they have to be confident that you are legal, decent, honest and truthful, or at least as near to that ideal as possible. I had to complete a form wanting full background details and then be interviewed by a selection panel testing everything from quick thinking (how would you promote diversity in your area?) to commitment, both in terms of time and thought. It was like being back at school, and I had to leave the room and wait a day or so before learning that I had been accepted. It was an early test.

Step 2, election, will be a bit harder.

One of the questions was something like, why do you want to stand for the Conservatives. There is an argument that local Government shouldn’t be too political; that it’s important for councillors to work together effectively and it would be better if councillors were independent. I don’t buy that. It is much better to operate as part of a group simply because then you have more influence, you’re more likely to be on the decisive committees and so on. You can still work constructively with others if you have the right attitude. I am an instinctive conservative: I think that Big Government usually gets things wrong – unintentionally – and so I’m very happy to be a Conservative candidate.  Another question: what would you do if there was a conflict with party policy and something important for your area – or yourself? I said that I found that unlikely but if it happened I’d have to vote against the party – but only after a proper explanation and discussion of why I thought like I did.

What's Right?

I always remember trying to introduce a sales system that worked well in 8 countries into another (the US).  It wasn’t invented there and they didn’t want it. The local head did not (understandably) want to force it on his sales force although he knew it would work well. It doesn’t matter what the facts are, he said, if people don’t like it they won’t use it properly. Emotion beats facts any day.

That came to mind with the Eastleigh by-election result. I hope someone does some decent analysis of voter thinking because the result was very interesting. At one level, the Lib-Dem win was not a surprise – they had everything in place and the candidate was a well established local. But Huhne and Rennard were not good examples of behaviour and the domination of local issues means national ones were not seen as being as important.

However, UKIP taking nearly 30% of the vote is a surprise that has a strong correlation to the Italian vote for Beppe Grillo’s party: it reflects a strong dislike for existing political parties and a feeling of powerlessness as economic problems make people nervous about their future.

What should the Tories do?

Factually: this isn’t about policy. There’s no point in drifting rightward.

In the last 8 weeks, the Tories have promised an in/out referendum on EU membership. It’s not immediate, but it’s a promise and they are the only mainstream party promising it. Not only that, but a UKIP MEP left UKIP and joined the Tories. Not just any UKIP MEP: Marta Andreasen, probably the most significant UKIP member ever in that she was the EU’s internal auditor who highlighted the poor record keeping and probable fraud within the EU and was sacked for her pains. And lastly, picking up another of UKIPs main concerns, on election day itself immigration figures showed a decline well on the way to the Government’s long term target (admittedly this is probably a reflection of the economy as much as immigration policy, but it is still happening).

All this made no difference: votes leached from the Tories to UKIP (and from other parties as well, but not as much). This must be about protest not policy, emotion not fact. I saw the Daily Express on Wednesday: it had 2 readers’ letters complaining about the EU stating that the Conservatives had reneged on a promise to hold an in out referendum. I’m sure the writers believed that, but it’s simply not true.  The Conservatives  promised to hold a referendum on the Lisbon treaty if it hadn’t been ratified when they came to power and to create a law that there must be a referendum in future if further powers were transferred to the EU. This they did. And the Lisbon treaty had been ratified by the time they came into office. They did keep their promises. But people think they didn’t. Emotion not fact.

So what should the Tories – and indeed other mainstream parties – do to regain the emotional confidence – or trust – of voters?  As noted above I don’t think we should change policies. Voters will spot changes in direction and character and will cynically assume they are not genuine. I think that we have to continue to be true to ourselves, to state clearly why we think and behave as we do and to be consistent about it.

We also have to focus on economic growth. I’ve always thought that the only important issue for the 2015 Election will be whether the economy is growing again.  If it is the coalition parties will do well. Unfortunately this will mostly be determined by what happens overseas, especially Europe and Asia, but there are things we could do ourselves. No fault dismissals; Lower and more importantly simpler taxes; Getting the Bank of England to get banks lending to SMEs rather than talking about more QE and negative interest rates are three things I would do; in fact any two of them would do.

But most important of all: be genuine. Voters don't trust politicians. So there's no point in being anything else.