Mark Ashwell Blog

PM Gordon Brown comes face to face with a voter and is asked about the debt. He gives her a nice smiley answer and gets back into his car. Disaster – his microphone is left on and he asks his aide how he was allowed to get caught and calls her ‘a bigoted woman’. She was interviewed afterwards and said she was an ordinary Labour voter and was stunned to be called bigoted. She was really upset. I wonder if Brown will be put to the sword now.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/UK-News

Last night all the candidates attended a public meeting at the Rose Street Methodist Hall to discuss their policies before the election of Wokingham’s next MP. All the candidates except that is, the legendary Top Cat Owen, Monster Raving Loony Party’s very own solution to the Redwood problem. Top Cat didn’t appear because he’s running scared – now that he realises he’s in with a chance. Over 200 residents turned up to the meeting … many of them hoping for a good old fashioned scrap. The rules didn’t allow us to rip into each other and the nearest we got to excitement was when Redwood and the Labour candidate spoke to each other directly – it quickly petered out though when they realised people were watching. To be fair though, everyone had a chance to say their piece and it was without doubt, equitable and fair. The organisation was a credit to the Canon and the Methodist team; it’s a fabulous place too. The rules didn’t allow for any clapping, booing or cheering, although stifled laughter seemed to be quite acceptable. I could hear someone sniggering just to the side of the audience and I started to worry about whether they would lose control once I started speaking, but I am fairly sure the laughter was reserved for one of the other candidates. I think I know who the other candidate was, but I decline to disclose further details.

There was an amusing moment when a question on energy had the hopefuls sliding about on their opinions. The question was on renewable energy and I happened to say that nuclear power seemed to be a practical solution. For this I received a kick from the Green’s (fair enough) and then from the Lib Dem candidate. I thought ‘I’m in trouble here’, but was relieved when the questioner stated there was a need for nuclear power. Phew, it was great to see the other candidates back tracking to curry a bit of favour. But the point is quite a serious one, a person who is asking the question is likely to know much more about the subject than the poor old candidate who is trying their best to be a walking encyclopedia. I found out very early on that if you don’t know something, find someone who does – and there are many sound brains in this very constituency. This is why I was banging on about building a manifesto that we as a community can build together. Isn’t politics exactly that – our MP represents our opinion rather than have a party tell what to vote for ? I’m lucky enough to have help from local specialists in the economy, education, technology, health and the environment and their job is to develop a dialogue with others who take an interest in their allotted subject. I take these opinions on board and I believe I know enough about the local people to judge which ones are a bit too radical or maybe not radical enough. In a sense we missed an opportunity whereby the candidates could have listened to the audience in a two way dialogue. So here is a suggestion. The questioner asks a question and the candidates answer. The questioner then gives their own opinion and the crowd is allowed to cheer for that person. It would certainly add a little more fun and at the same time enable us as candidates to pick up the mood of the audience.

Regrets ? … I have a few. I don’t think we got onto the subject of the country’s debt mountain. I know the first question was about where we would make cuts, but none of us really laid out the seriousness of the country’s finances to emphasise the need for some unpopular decisions. As a nation we make about £1.4 trillion every year. Our debt is about £850 billion (without including the guarantees to the banks) and this years debt alone is £160 billion. Our interest payments next year will reach £40 billion per annum, exceeding our defence budget. Uncurtailed, our debt will be £1.5 trillion in 5 years. So how much does the government make to pay off these debts ?  Our government picks up about £600 billion a year. If you raised tax by a monstrous 10% it would still only reduce the annual deficit to £100 billion a year and interest payments will continue to soar. Such a huge tax increase will also send the country into a nasty recession and this will reduce tax receipts even further and increase government spending to pay for unemployment. But it’s more than that – unemployment means much more than that. We now have personal debts of £1.5 trillion – £56k per household. What happens when the unemployed can’t pay the debts they have built up over the years?  And what guarantee exists that the extra tax isn’t wasted on something else? Even taking an axe to government spending will not prevent the debt from rising. I thought we were all poor in answering the question about cuts, I was the last in the row to answer and I should have used my minute to flag up the reasons why we need to take urgent action on the economy. Still, this was my first Hustings and learning is all part of the journey. Not so long ago I was in a meeting with John Redwood and I remember him saying that the economy was the most important issue affecting the UK. I agree with this view and I am annoyed that he has been gagged by his party on this subject. His literature tells us he is a ‘National Voice’, but I can’t find him on the TV at all. He has become the Invisible Man of the Conservative Party when he should be repeating the  same economic messages in front of the world’s media. But the parties are all about image these days and John Redwood it seems is not suited to be the bringer of bad news. What’s the point on being an expert on a subject when you can’t tell anyone ?

I am putting out my final leaflet on this very subject and the point I am making is that if we don’t face up to our debts now, it is our children who will suffer. This is not being over dramatic, the above numbers are chilling in their enormity. Our children are at risk of not only paying for our over generous pensions, a world without oil and an increase in the number of retirees, but they will also inherit the debts this generation did not have the courage to face up to. Debt has become a political hot potato; Labour refuse to accept responsibility, the Conservatives don’t want to be accused of being the nasty party and the Lib Dems will not acknowledge it for fear of upsetting their fragile new found popularity. As an Independent, I can prove I have no axe to grind other than to tell the rest of the country this is the single most important challenge facing us today and that all parties must face up to it right now.

The message in Lower Earley is “we’re unhappy with how we are being treated, so come and get us!”….. Lower Earley feel ignored, caught between Wokingham Council and Reading services (eg transport) and no party showing any interest in their opinion. This is fatal, Lower Earley have a strong sense of identity and feel it being stripped away. Unlike the parties, we are not thick on the ground with supporters (we have quality though!) and therefore we need to concentrate on the place where the community gathers, one area being the supermarkets. Although we have permission to canvass from Tesco in Wokingham, I’m afraid ASDA of Earley has only given permission to the three main parties. A local independent candidate is banned I’m afraid*. This makes us even more determined and we therefore decided to concentrate on more door knocking in the Earley area and the response has been magnificent. Not only were we given a fair hearing on the doorstep, but people were openly happy to commit and allow us to erect boards in their gardens. We managed to get six up in a single morning!

Here are some of the main points raised by Earley residents:

• There is a general sense of abandonment of Earley. It seems there is no sense of being a part of Wokingham, even though it’s part of the borough. And the same about Reading even though it is in close proximity. I think this is true of many parts of our area and reflects a growing and dangerous  feeling of not belonging to anywhere.
• To save £18,000, Laurel Park Pavilion was closed down. The kids in the area have little to do. One of my priority actions is to help our youth connect with each other and to also improve our general fitness. On local issues (which have national implications) my aim is to bring business, community groups and local government to work together to improve our quality of life.
• No transport linkage to Wokingham even though it is part of Wokingham Borough Council. This point covers many issues, young adults want more bus links, Wokingham needs more contact with its outer areas as do the residents, we need more buses in the Borough as there are simply too many cars clogging up an underfunded road network. This is a warning to all the population increases being imposed on us by central government.
• One of the points made was about pensions. 8.2% of our council tax goes towards council workers’ final salary schemes. The pension contribution is 15% of their salary each year. We want a greater fairness in the pension system as this burden will fall heavily on our children’s shoulders when they are adults.

Notes:

*The irony is that we are the only people to visit ASDA and the other parties have not taken up ASDA’s open door to the big boys! This is the reality of politics today, there is little support for the Independents and our leaders shed only crocodile tears when they lament the sad state of politics.

Amongst all the hard work we often get a call of support from friends who started as strangers. Here is a letter from a lady who simply sums it all up….

“Well done Mark, it’s really good to see a real person who has already done so much for the area standing. My son Jack will be voting for the first time this year and to my horror wasn’t going to bother because he felt there was nothing to choose from and that the usual lot do not have a clue about ordinary people, their lives and needs. But now he has seen you’re standing, he has sprung into life (a bit of an exageration – 19 year olds  are not that energetic as you know) so we are going to vote together and our crosses will be firmly by your name . Good luck you will do well. You have got the whole town talking. I own a local salon and you have dominated the conversation the last couple of weeks”.

Although in the greater scheme of things, I am just one of the little guys – sometimes I feel like a giant. Thank you.

MPs have voted John Redwood as ‘the leader of the right’ and even knocks Norman Tebbitt into second place. This means he is on the right wing of a traditionally right wing party. So how right wing are the people of Wokingham ? In the last election the combined vote of Labour and Lib Dem exceeded that of Redwood. I believe Wokingham is not on the furthest right extremes of the three parties and a high number of conservative voters have a more balanced view of politics. I have been here all my life and rarely come across right wing views. We’ll see what happens in this election.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2008/05/the-leaders-of.html

Wokingham’s Parliamentary seat has been Conservative for 125 years. Time for a change?

30 other seats have been held by the same political party since 1895.

Wokingham’s seat is supposedly one of the safest seats for the Conservatives at each General Election – is it any wonder why disillusioned voters see no point in voting when the media reports that our seat is ’safe’ at every election. 125 years of the Conservatives, it’s time for a change!

But many people don’t realise the crown is slipping from John Redwood’s head…… it is now only 363rd safest out of 643 seats.

The Promote The Vote campaign is about inspiring the whole constituency to get up and vote on May 6th, for whichever party they feel will best represents them in Parliament. If you’re not registered to vote, you can’t help Wokingham make history. You have until 20th April to ensure you are registered to vote. Phone the Wokingham Electoral Services Helpline on (0118) 974 6522 / 23.

See which other seats have been held since 1895, courtesy of this map from http://www.astr.is/electionmaps/:

No changes in Parliamentary seats since 1895.

Campaigning in Lower Earley last night one of the team saw at first hand the amazing professionalism of our paramedics and police. Special thanks also to the members of the public who stopped to help out.

Andy Croy, one of our active supporters takes up the story:

“I was on the last task last night in Lower Earley, when I came across a man lying by the side of the road near the roundabout at the junction Beeston Way and Rushey Way. At first I thought he was drunk but as I got closer to him he started convulsing , it looked like he was in a fit but unconscious.

….I called 999 for an ambulance.

….In the meantime a car driver had stopped to help.

….A passer by student nurse had stopped to help,

…..followed shortly after by a GP and her partner.

…..A passing police van also stopped.

…..A few minutes later the ambulance arrived.

The man recovered consciousness, said he had been hit by a car. He was walking unsteadily, no obvious breaks or blood but was taken away in the ambulance for checks, so hopefully he will be ok”

Isn’t that an amazing tale of how our community pulls together and looks after its own ? Well done to Andy, he really is  yet another magnificent member of this campaign.

I’ve just read of Poland’s loss. Their President, Lech Kaczynski and many of their cultural leaders were killed in a plane crash today. The UK and Poland have a strong history together; our entry in to World War Two was as a result of Germany’s invasion into Poland in 1939. After the war they were lost behind the Soviet Union’s iron curtain and only re-emerged in the late 80’s after the leadership of Lech Walesa led them out of oppression and into the first non communist government for forty years. Many of us clearly remember the huge peace movement that inspired the people of Poland and I hope you will join me in a thought for them during this time of bereavement.

I was just about to put a little bet on the Grand National when I decided to have a look at my own chances in the election. I remember a pal of mine getting odds on me at 200-1 ! It seems those days are long gone as I’m now only 50-1 – something of a collapse. I’m now ahead of Labour, who are 100-1.

We’ve just come back from campaigning in Wokingham town centre today and I detected a change since  the election was called last Tuesday. I must admit when I was in the town last month I was trying to grab people’s attention, but this time it was different. Now people are engaged and ready to listen and are actively seeking out an Independent candidate. As long as we can get our message out, people are pledging their support. The message?  This Independent, will not toe any party line and will ask the difficult questions of any Government – This Independent will be a Community MP, pulling us together – This Independent will be a Reforming MP, calling upon Westminster to bring about real change in the way it behaves – This Independent serves no other master than the people of Wokingham.

The Dark Horse is coming up on the rails.

Have a look….

http://www.paddypower.com/bet/novelty-betting/other-politics/uk-election-betting/Wokingham-1776166.html