Labour MP's - it's over to you

So, we have had a minor reshuffle with Gordon proving once again that although he will try to hang on by his fingernails, his position is so weak that he can't do what he wants. Despite this, it is starting to look like he is going to survive.

It is now a question of career or Country for the Labour MPs. Do they put your own self-interest at heart and bottle out of getting rid of Brown so they can hang on for another year, or do they do the tough thing and put Country first?

Time and again the majority of Labour MPs have let Britain down when it comes to being tough. Will those MPs like Graham Allen who are calling on Gordon to go now have enough courage to start circulating and signing letters?

If they don't we will continue to have a totally rudderless Country at a time when we most need decisiveness and leadership - and the people of Britain will remember the gutless failure of Labour MPs for a long time.

When I was selected for Nottingham North, I was asked the question: "Which comes first, Country, party or Constituency?" My answer was Country first, constituency second and party third." Backbench Labour MPs now have to answer the same question. This time it counts.

Election Results

The result in Whittlesey North was:

Curtis (Con) - 1393

Chapman (Lib) - 499

Hibbert (Lab) - 343

I am really pleased with the result, which sees my share of the vote increase by 8% compared to last time. Thanks to Dave Chapman and Jes for standing, we actually had quite a fun time at the count.

Also pleased that Ralph Butcher was equally (if not more) successful in Whittlesey South.

Biggest giggle of the day was the for the smart Alec who spoiled his ballot paper by putting a £ sign in each of the boxes.

It is also great to see the Conservatives back in control at Shire Hall, but disappointing to see a few of my colleagues lose their seats as well as a couple from the Labour bench who I had a great deal of time for. That sort of churn is inevitable, but always brings a tad of sadness.

Probably the biggest press headline will be Matt Bradney losing his seat. It is a real shame, Matt was a real asset both to his Division and to the County in the work he did with the Highways portfolio.

Nearly Over

I have been involved in a few election campaigns now.   I can say with some certainty that this was the weirdest campaign so far.

On the doorstep I have been told over and again that people are fed up with politicians because of the expenses scandal, and also that people are fed up with Gordon Brown.   I understand both.

Hopefully people realise that local politicians are not wrapped up in the same horrendous expenses regime that has so disillusioned people - don't punish local politicians because of Westminster.

But the Gordon Brown issue is important.  Whether Gordon Brown survives tomorrow depends on how poor the Labour Party do.  So if you want rid of Gordon, go out and vote against.

So that makes the Lib Dems and the Conservatives the options.   Except that the Lib Dems have offered very poor opposition at the County Council, trying to make ground by painting every success as failure and running down the good work that the Conservatives have done, good work that is widely recognised by organisations like the Audit Commission, who rated us as the most improved County Council in the Country.   That is very poor politics from the Lib Dems, you have to think whether that deserves your support.

In Whittlesey the Lib Dems have done nothing.  I haven't seen them out canvassing and have not seen any literature put out by local Candidates (just one leaflet for the European elections - which was delivered free by Royal Mail).  A vote for the Lib Dems would be a vote for poor politics and/or apathy.

So vote for the Party that the Labour Candidate has said is delivering for Whittlesey - the Conservatives - and the candidate he said has served the Town well over the last four years - me.

I hope that this time on Friday I am able to post and say that I was successful.  But, irrespective, please go out and vote, the times when Democracy needs you most is the times when people are most disillusioned.

Lib Dems up to their tricks in the East of England

This article on Conservative Home is well worth a read:

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2009/05/lies-on-lib-dem-election-literature.html

This is the latest in my series of responses to Jes Hibbert's Leaflet. When (if?) the Lib Dems dare to put one out I will respond.

20 mph Zones. Jes has asked for 20mph zone in the Avenues. He is behind the times. I have pushed the police and Cambs County Council a number of times to implement a 20 mph zone outside Alderman Jacobs School and, the County Council is currently reviewing its policies, which mean that there is potential for this to happen anyway.

However, just saying "the Avenues" is a very broad brush approach and we should not move forward until we know what the views of residents are and what the implications are. Furthermore, dealing with our biggest problem - AJS - without considering Teal Road may be a problem, because there is some evidence that traffic will use rat runs to avoid 20mph zones. So just including the Avenues misses the point.

Improved Youth provision. Jes has called for improved Youth provision in Whittlesey (whilst at the same time complimenting the work the Conservatives have done in this area).

Jes doesn't seem to know the facts. Fenland District council recently worked with the County Council on an ambitious plan for a new Youth Centre in Whittlesey. Unfortunately the bid was refused because the Government chose to divert the available funds towards Labour areas.

Again, the issue is recognised and is being developed. Jes has not come up with anything new - just something which his own party at a National level have chosen to ignore.

Rest assured I am well on top of this.

Labour Leaflet

Jes Hibbert, the Labour candidate is putting out a leaflet at the moment. He says some nice things about me (for which I thank him), but it also raises some issues, so I thought over the next few days I would respond.

Nottingham. Jes' comments seem to suggest that I am moving to Nottingham. This is absolutely not the case. Yes, I am the Parliamentary Candidate for Nottingham North, but I travel to Nottingham from Whittlesey and not the other way round. Nottingham North currently has a Labour majority of 12,171, a tough task. That is not an admission of defeat, I don't do anything in politics for 2nd best, just a recognition that it is a tough fight. I don't know if I will win, nor do you - and Jes is very aware of this.

In order to make sure I had the time to deal with being a Parliamentary Candidate, I resigned as a Board Member of Cambridgeshire Probation Service and will cut back on some of the political consultancy I do. I would not be a Parliamentary Candidate and let Whittlesey down - the Town means too much for me for that.

Don't vote based on an unknown - Jes has been complimentary of my achievements and those of the Conservatives in Whittlesey - so why is there a need for a change?

Fortress Sir Harry. Jes claims that Sir Harry Smith is not Community minded. This has been a gripe of his that goes back many, many years - indeed it was part of Jes' campaign four years ago, - using the same Squash Club point. Does the portrait he paints fit in with the fact that the school have just opened "The Laurie Richards Community Centre" (something I supported wholeheartedly).  A video of the opening of the new Community Centre is here.

Jes' comment does not reflect the modern day Sir Harry Smith Community College at all - nor does it recognise the vision of the college for the future. Unfortunately, I suspect his comments will upset many at the school.

This lack of understanding of Sir Harry Smith is important. The school is going through a critical phase at the moment because of the Building Schools for the Future project, which will see significant rebuilding and changes to learning. Whittlesey must have County Councillors that know and understand both Sir Harry Smith CC and education as a whole. Having a County Councillor who criticises the school unfairly will just create distance and create problems. I remain committed to Sir Harry Smith as a Governor and will remain so if re-elected as your County Councillor.

County Council Meeting

Given that this was the final County Council meeting before the election I expected a bit of a barnstormer. Actually the Liberal Democrats were somewhat subdued. As usual, at the beginning of the meeting the awards the Council has been won were announced, except the list this month was the longest I can remember.

As ever, the Liberal Democrats failed to acknowledge that we had been successful. You would have thought it would be a nice touch for their Leader at some point to congratulate the staff who had been involved - it would be easy to fit in at the introduction to his first comment - but the Lib Dems in the County do their best to deny any recognition of success. Further reiterated when, once again, their Leader, David Jenkins, tried to deny that we have been recognised as the most improved County Council in the country. I really do struggle with this; denying and talking down success is surely the most obvious sign that you are not fit to run a Council.

For me,the most important part to the Council meeting was the agreement of the Big Plan 2 and the Children's Workforce Strategy. These are crucial documents that set out the plans for children's services across the County. There was one snide and unhelpful remark that the documents were so good that the Liberal Democrats could have written it (is there really a need for that?), but apart from that a number of constructive and supportive comments were made and they were voted through with unanimous support and I am grateful for that support - it reflects the good work that was done in preparation.

Overall, the meeting was a reflection of the last four years, the Lib Dems struggled to make an impact and spent as much time as possible talking down success.

David Cameron's Election Broadcast

This replaced the Conservatives' planned Election Broadcast last night.

Once again it demonstrates that of all the party leaders David Cameron has reacted best to the current crisis (which is shocking). Hopefully,later I will be able to publish a letter that has gone to a local paper that highlights the difference between a Councillor's expenses and that of MP's -please don't think it is the same for us.

Labour Election Broadcast

I watched the Labour election broadcast yesterday. It is a shocker, Daily Mail politics, preying on people's worst fears by (at best) twisting the truth to the extreme.

Yet another example why the Labour Party need to go.

You can see the broadcast on the Spectator blog here and, at the same time, read Fraser Nelson's analysis.

Lib Dems – Painting Cambridgeshire Black

It has long disappointed me that the Liberal Democrats in Cambridgeshire have tried to secure political advantage by painting everything the Council does black.

It seems that now they are asking the Conservatives to ignore our successes. The Leader of the Lib Dems has written to Jill Tuck, asking for her to withdraw our manifesto comment that we are the most improved County Council in England because there was no “official announcement” from the Audit Commission.

Except that, as this chart shows, the performance indicators they selected for analysis is proof that Cambridgeshire has improved more than any other County Council in England.
It is a typical Lib Dem trick. It supports the evidence from their own Campaign Guide, which advises the Lib Dems to "Be wicked, act shamelessly, stir endlessly."


That methodology also explains a lot about the Lib Dem’s manifesto for Cambridgeshire, which on the one hand calls for lower Council taxes (ignoring the fact that we are already a low Council tax authority) but then includes a raft of spending commitments. There are two reasons for this:


1. They don’t have to make the sums add up, as their campaign guide also says: “"Don't be afraid to exaggerate” and “why court the unpopularity that goes with the responsibility of power?"

2. Much of what is included in their manifesto is already in hand and being planned by the Conservative led administration.


Do you want to vote for a party that seeks to win power in this way?

Press Coverage

It’s always handy to have your name in the paper at elections. I’m in the Cambs Times three times this week – only one of which is about elections; the Fenland campaign launch for the County elections. That launch was quite an interesting event, with John Elworthy from the Cambs Times asking us some quite challenging questions about delivery and, in particular, about the capital and revenue problems faced by the College of West Anglia. We have a very firm view about this, which is that anything other than full funding for the College we were promised is unacceptable.

It is interesting that the Labour response has been that they support this line, but they refuse to criticise the Labour Government and Ministers who have failed in this process.

The second article is about the planning committee decision last week to refuse permission for a superstore in Station Road. This was a really tough decision, because I am convinced that Whittlesey would benefit from another Supermarket. My own view was that this application was massively lacking in detail, largely because the developer had failed to do any consultation and had failed to demonstrate, for example, how they would overcome some of the highways concerns that were expressed – such as the potential huge queues of traffic at the railway crossing, or the increase in traffic at the junctions with Eastgate/Inhams Road or Station Road/Inhams Road.

If the developers are serious they will go away and start on a pre-application process to begin to discuss and deal with these issues. Some consultation with residents in Whittlesey before they submit another application would not go amiss.

The third article is about running the London Marathon. The photograph they have used is excellent; in fact I have a few really good pictures from the marathon which I am really chuffed with (even if I wasn’t chuffed with my time. The article says it all about my experience – hard but fun.

Candidates for Whittlesey North

I now know who the Candidates for Whittlesey North are.



They are Jes Hibbert for the Labour Party and Dave Chapman from the Lib Dems. You may now be asking "who?". It's a good question, given that neither have been politically active at all in Whittlesey over recent years. Dave hasn't stood for election for many years, whereas Jes has not done any serious politics in Whittlesey for at least four years. Indeed he had a sensible but well-known fall out with the Labour Party during the Blair years. So can we assume that he is back in love with New Labour under Gordon Brown?



Actually, the serious point is, how much commitment as a Councillor could you expect from someone whose only involvement in politics is during elections? What Whittlesey needs is opposition that shows some commitment.



I am relishing the next month.