Wow....What a Victory!

May 2008 will go down in the history books as a very special month. Local election results to die for and Boris elected as Mayor of London. And as if that was not enough, Crewe falling to the Conservatives by a landslide majority - a first in 30 years. I have had so many telephone calls of congratulations and sheer relief that things are changing. We have two years to go until the next election....and it seems both very far away and very close.

It has been a busy couple of months quite apart from my commitments as a school governor at Rydon and Knowles Hill, and now Secretary to the Newton Abbot Area of the Senior Council Senior Council for Devon:

April

• launched Patrons Club
• Attended Dawlish Civic Dinner at the invitation of the Mayor
• Attended launch of Newton Abbot Community Plan - and won a bottle of fiz!
• Attended CPRE Annual General Meeting - the energy and food supply issues were hotly debated
• Issued press release on Newton Abbot Racecourse parking - picked up by Herald Express
• Visited Newton Abbot Indoor Market to hear about traders issues
• Palm Radio interview on the removal of coach parking at the racecourse
• 4Networking meetings to invite local traders to work with local schools
• Hosted coffee mornings in Mamhead, Starcross, Powderham and Kingsteignton
• Entertained Mark Harper MP, Shadow Minister for Disability and visited Shopmobility
• Joined Teignmouth Yacht Club and attended new members evening
• Invited to attend Sea Cadet Presentation and Service at Teignmouth and a reception at Bitton House

May

• Joined litter pick team at Dawlish Warren to clean the beach
• Visited street traders and market stall holders
• Met with local councillor and WBB re New Cross Development in Kingsteignton
• Beat the Bounds at Ipplepen
• Attended Teignmouth Town Council Annual Meeting
• Attended Devon County Show with Conservative Future
• Invited to County Show Reception organised by leading regional professional firms
• Met with local haulage company with Anthony Steen MP to address unfair competition issues
• Attended meetings with Holcombe residents to address proposed closure of the post office
• Canvassing, survey delivery across the constituency
• Met with national museums in London to explore local schools initiative in Devon
• Talked with local kidney dialysis patients concerning their future treatment

The most significant chunk of time has however been spent working with the Seale Hayne Future Group. While of course we need houses, we also need agricultural and educational provision. Seale Hayne, as a leading agricultural college, had been a a key asset to Newton Abbot - a beacon and example of what is best. It also brought young people to the town, created jobs and stood out as an icon for the town. That all changed. Plymouth University acquired it in the 1990s since when it has gone from bad to worse with no investment in its future. Plymouth have now agreed to sell it to a Scottish housing developer expected to build some 1200 houses on the site, and if we are lucky maybe they will be required to build a primary school. On the table was a proposal for something much more interesting - a plan to build a truly sustainable community incorporating a university and bringing employment to the town. It could have been Devon's Eden Project....and it still might be. Watch this space.

But in the next few weeks we must focus on saving Holcombe Post Office - not just as an end in itself but because of all it represents in this community - and many others like it. If the Post Office are calling for more government funding nationally yet again, would you back a promise from this government that there will be no more post office closures in a years time - I don't think so!

A wintery Easter ...and British Summer Time just a week away!

I am looking forward to the longer evenings...and some better weather! Walking the dogs every morning is a very muddy and slippery affair. The day of the storms which saw Teignmouth flooded was quite exceptional. I walked around Newton Abbot to see just how high the river would rise that morning and was staggered. Flood defenses must become more of a priority for the council - things are going to get worse not better. The new hospital in Orleigh Park might remain dry but the water was certainly right at the top of its banks in a number of places close by and the pools of water trapped by clay deposits numerous.

The Senior Council for Devon, on the Assembly of which I sit representing Newton Abbot, is making progress. This month we approved a new constitution and elected a new chairman, executive officers and the board of directors. The next step will be getting the local branches working properly and feeding up to the board, issues which need to be addressed by Devon County Council. Key issues are likely to include transport and health care provision. Our next local branch meeting is at 10.00am 17 April at Kingsteignton Community Hall. Please do come along and find out what we are trying to do and let us have your thoughts and ideas. While we are called the Newton Abbot branch, we also cover Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracey. There are separate branches for Dawlish and for Teignmouth which will also be holding meetings shortly.

Farmers have been top of mind this month. I was invited to attend a meeting of Devon Farms, a group established to promote tourism in our rural communities and provide a source of much needed income to local farmers diversifying into bed and breakfast and self-catering holidays. It was a fabulous celebration of all that this dedicated group have achieved. Gary Streeter MP was there to address us and we were treated to a great food, good company and an opportunity to meet the stock man and his wife with their prize cows on Fowlescombe Farm, just outside Ivybridge, where Richard Barker was kindly hosting the event. Now I understand why farmers are so attached to their animals. But on a more serious note there is great concern at how little support the government is giving to their businesses. The central budget promoting tourism has been slashed by half and it is these sorts of businesses which are paying the price.

I have also now established a farmer's forum and on 17 March we met for the first time at Bulleigh Park Farm, thanks to Angela and Phil Dallyn. A number of issues were raised but the most vociferously discussed were the red tape issues. Farmers know how to farm, let them get on with it! The government do not understand how to deal with infection and have failed to recognise that disease is here to stay - it is naive to think we can keep our borders as barriers in the global market farming has become. We had representatives from the Young Farmers and the NFU who came to hear what was being said. I was impressed and delighted to hear from one young farmer who thought the main reason stopping the young coming into farming was quite simply the price of land. Land coming on the market is being snapped up by those who want and can afford to pay above the agricultural price for land just to have the farm house. Sometimes the land that goes with it gets worked by a local farmer but then usually just for hay and silage rather than something more productive.

We had National Tourism Week this month and I went to visit three of our local tourism entrepreneurs to listen to what they had to say. Cofton Country Holidays in Starcross are an example of just what can be achieved. They have been awarded eight consecutive Gold Awards for Conservation by David Bellamy, in recognition of their commitment to protecting, preserving and maintaining this glorious corner of Devon. They pride themselves in sourcing everything locally. They would like to see some changes in the tax legislation to make it easier to employ part timers who are doing seasonal work like this. My last stop was to visit Nigel Bell at Sampsons Farm. Probably one of the few independent restaurant hotels of its kind, in the constituency, Nigel has a hard time making ends meet. The market has changed and he has found that the summer holiday market has largely moved abroad to guaranteed sunshine. The market he has diversified into - weekend breaks and the corporate market - is much harder to sell. His plea is for the government to recognise that small businesses are just that - small. They need greater flexibility and cannot survive on a one size fits all approach to business as a whole.

I was delighted to be appointed a governor of Knowles Hill School this month and am very much looking forward to working with Gareth Davies and his team. In a very short time he has turned the school and its prospects around. And schools were very much front of mind when I addressed two 4Networking business group meetings this month in Newton Abbot and Exeter. My plea was for business to recognise that there has to be a symbiotic relationship between businesses and the communities they operate it. This government won't help business but communities will. Key here is their relationship with schools. And on the subject of community I raised the issue of Post Offices and posed the question - what can we as successful business people do to support them? If Essex can come up with a plan, we should be lobbying Devon to do the same. I was lobbying Richard Younger Ross to support the Conservative proposal to the House last week to freeze the current closure plan and I urged them to do the same.

Europe has of course been another key issue. I had organised three Referendum street stalls asking members of the public to hold Gordon Brown to account giving them post cards to complete and return asking for a Referendum. Neil Parish our MEP came out to support us and we had an excellent response. But this government is stubborn to a fault. The call for a referendum in parliament went unheeded. And what a dreadful budget. I won't rehearse its ills here, we are already too familiar with them. Suffice it to say Gordon has taken his party to an all time low in the polls in 25 years giving the Conservative Party a 16 point lead. I am now being lobbied quite rightly by small haulage companies - if Gordon puts the extra tax on fuel in the autumn , many of them will go out of business - and that starts a further cascade of business failures.

But I did have some fun on Easter Saturday. The Newton Abbot Court Leet invited me to their annual bread weighing which this year took place at the Ship Inn on Walborough Street. Hot cross buns from a number of local bakeries were weighed and sampled by those assembled and found to be very good eating indeed! Certificates were duly presented and then the remaining goodies auctioned raising over £100 for Rowcroft , the Portrieve's charity for the year. The next event is the beating of the bounds next month - walking shoes will be needed to gain access to those parts of Newton Abbot rarely visited by most of us!

Spring is around the corner - but Gordon is still in permafrost

The daffodils are coming through and Spring seems to be well on the way - for most of us. For Gordon Brown it must seem like perpetual winter. The economy goes from bad to worse and rising prices and the credit crunch are hitting us all. Food and energy prices keep going up but with no knock on benefit for farmers. And the spotlight has for some time been on the woeful shortcomings of politicians - oh why can't they behave! Don't go into politics today unless you are really committed to making a difference and improving the quality of other people's lives - not your own.



After a brief break in January, I have been out and about in the constituency. Last week I was at the Wednesday morning stock sale in Newton Abbot. There was a good turnout and a surprising number of sheep and cattle for sale. Better still the prices fetched were significantly up bringing a bit of a smile to farmers' faces. I had a good meeting with Anthony Rew who is taking over the NFU Devon chairmanship this year. We talked over the many issues needing to be addressed, particularly the TB epedemic among the badger population. He is very supportive of the farmers group I am getting together - we need to act now. The point to point at Ideford Arch was great fun as ever and very well attended - and was a good opportunity to have my ear bent about the many other issues facing the rural community!



Seale -Hayne has taken up much of my time. I met with the Seale-Hayne Future Group at the end of last year and since then have been working with them to see what we can do. The original intention of Sir Charles is being at best ignored and at worse totally overidden. It is a complicated story of a charitable trust going through so much change that the principles and processes to preserve that intent have got lost. Only some £750,000 was left after the transfer of Seale-Hayne to Plymouth University in the late 1990s and this was used to establish a new trust to provide bursaries and other funding to related and appropriate causes. And now in 2008 Plymouth is selling up the very same asset for what many expect will be a figure in excess of £20 million. Justice still might be done if the sale is to a bidder with similar intentions to those of Sir Charles but that seems less and less likely....but there are still things that can be done.

I had a delighful meeting with one of our oldest residents in Dawlish, Lucy Poole - a staunch Conservative and still with a razor sharp brain at 102. She has a remarkeable memory and is righfully proud of many children, grandchildre and great grandchildren. Dawlish has been through much change in her time. The battle of the supermarkets will result in even more change. It seems to be that the old saying, "location, location, location" is as relevant to buying a family home as to big business. Sainsbury's have the better site and I fear Tesco's will lose out accordingly. A recent survey showed over 90% are in favour of the Sainsbury's option. The public meeting next week which I believe both supermarket chains have declined to attend should be decisive.

I have been spending this month getting out to meet school heads to better understand their issues and concerns. Teignmouth College made me very welcome last week. A school with a vision of where it wants to go and which is well on its way to achieving it. The improvement in GCSE results is impressive as is the extraordinary choice of subjects available to students. While it has an outstanding reputation for its maths provision, quite a rarity these days, it also has some quite outstanding arts facilities and talented pupils to go with it. This week I will be visiting Knowles Hill. A good education , like good health is without doubt one of the most important things we can give our children and the generations to come. And what we need more of is good quality vocational training, which Teignmouth College have spotted and made provision for.

I was very flattered last week to be elected Newton Abbot's representative on Devon's Senior Council. While I have been involved for some months now in the council which is being established under the auspices of Devon County Council, this was an honour I had not expected. I have been working with a number of the caring agencies on a variety of issues but this new body should give us something we have not had before - a voice - and a joined up one at that for all of us over 50 whether or not working and whether or not able bodied. Devon County Council are putting money behind this so we must give it our best shot and get it to work!

Last but not least I have been getting to know local businesses better. I run my own local marketing business and am a member of the Federation of Small Businesses. The FSB have been organising business breakfasts on a monthly basis in Teignmouth and Newton Abbot which have been great networking events and those I have met have been a huge support in times of crisis. One very kind fellow businessman helped me out with an urgent fax - my fax was down and these days there are no local fax bureauxs. I called for help - and without question got it. There is an enormous bond and lots of goodwill - we are all struggling to make our businesses work - and together we are much more likely to achieve that.

I think my January has been rather more productive than Gordon's - he needs a bit more sunshine to thaw out. The trouble is ...I doubt he will get it any time soon.

Happy Christmas!

It's Boxing Day - not exactly "deep and crisp and even" but rather warm and damp with beautiful winter sunshine. And that was just what was needed for the traditional Boxing Day dip by the pier in Teignmouth. I sponsored rather than "dipped" but it was great spectator sport and a great way of raising money for the RNLI. On then to Shaldon for the annual three-legged race - or should we say "pub crawl" starting this year from the Shipwrights public house by the playing field. A fantastic turn out and some first class costumes - including one pair who had dressed themselves up as the missing NHS and Pension computer disks that Gordon Brown's administration would appear to have lost! Very topical! But the winners for their dress were a quite remarkable pair of eyes - each eye ball was some four feet wide with the competitors barely visible through each pupil! In the under 18 category - a very young pair as "118 118" won. And finally on to Bradley Manor in Newton Abbot for a very festive boxing day gathering as these things should be done - as a thank you to all those who have worked so hard during the year. I sometimes despair at how materialistic Christmas has become with the original Christmas spirit and message largely drowned out.

But what a busy time Christmas is in Teignbridge. I sat and counted how many carol services, Christingle services, blessings of the crib, nativity plays, Victorian markets and mulled wine and mince pie thank you parties I have been to in the last 10 days - some 26! The Christmas message is alive and well here - and the quality of these events a real tribute to those involved. The Victorian market in Stokeinteignhead provided my Christmas cake, the Victorian evening in Newton Abbot my Christmas table centrepiece. While the RNLI carol service in Teignmouth was exceptional in its quality and professionalism, there are so many other gems across the constituency, of which Starcross sticks in my memory as one of the best - but then I have always enjoyed my carols most by candlelight and the delicious mixture of poetry with more traditional readings was quite special - as was the apple cake which followed!

I was elected an associate governor at Rydon School in Kingsteignton last month and I feel very privileged - it is a very special school. The teachers and the children had worked very hard on two productions, one was a delightful version of the nativity story with carols to new modern tunes that really got the feet going with the beat- and I was very pleased to see the angels had wings! The other was a story about a very miserable snowman who just would not cheer up - until at last he saw Jesus in a manger! Great fun and clearly enjoyed as much by the children and the audience.

And on the national stage, Gordon Brown is not having much luck - yet more and more lost records - and this time in the States! Why were they there - what happened to the "buy British " mantra? The Liberal Democrats have now elected Nick Clegg - and we wait with bated breath to see what that brings. While a number of MPs in the South West have been elevated to the now substantially enlarged Liberal Shadow Cabinet, that did not include Mr Younger-Ross. What will 2008 bring? Predictions are not good - a failing economy, a Prime Minister who does not enjoy the trust and confidence of the people - where is the next banana skin? Was Gordon listening to the Queen on Christmas Day - please God he was and takes seriously the debt we owe to the courage of our troops and begins to properly fund their health and safety as they continue to fight a war of his making.

Best wishes to you all for 2008. Keep the comments coming. If you would like a reply let me have an e mail address - its a bit difficult to reply to anonymous contributions!

Remember, Remember.....

November is a time to remember. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is a time to remember what so many others have done for so many of us. I was very moved to see so many with me at the three Remembrance Day services I attended in Newton Abbot, Dawlish and Shaldon. I laid a wreath with great pride. Perhaps best of all was the sight of so many young people and young families. We so often think of them as the generation that knew only peace. Today, sadly that is simply not true.

The last few weeks have been full of reminders of our proud history. Shaldon celebrated Trafalgar Day with a first class dinner in the church hall. As I addressed the dinners, I reminded them why we won..and the French lost. We were a better, well trained force which despite our numbers won the day..and a lot of that was down to morale and sheer will power..to win! And we will do that again when Brown is forced to call the next general election. Gordon missed his chance and it won't come again. David Cameron is moving from strength to strength in the opinion polls and consolidating the vote. Labour will deserve to lose the next election and we will deserve to win it.

Newton Abbot has its own proud history which we also regularly celebrate. The Earl of Devon and I were guests of the Newton Abbot Court Leet at its annual Law Day on 20th October. Reports of all the activities of the year were given - with great hilarity on occasion - and I was asked to deputise for the new Portreeve, Alan Vizor - which included paying his fine for non-attendance!

But most important of all has been the time spent with constituents listening to and helping out with problems. As has already been well publicised on TV I worked with residents of Holcombe village to help them in their battle with the Tax Inspector - and we saved the village £19,000. I have now a number of cases where much to my surprise there is huge discrimination against the young -and disabled. The system seems to cope with disability which is age related but not with a disability such as arthritis when it happens to someone in their twenties. Does it seem right to you that a young 28 year old mother of two should lose all help and financial support when she is lucky enough to find a young man willing to become part of that family and take on many of the burdens. Apart they were twice as well off, together they are struggling to pay for the most basic items of food and clothing.

Planning seems to be the bete noir for many and the present governments approach is most unhelpful. Is it right that loft conversions should be allowed to proliferate at the expense of personal dignity and privacy? I have three cases now in Kingsteignton where loft conversions have seriously affected individual's human rights. It is one thing to find that the privacy you enjoyed to look out into your garden without being overlooked has been eroded. It is quite another to find neighbours turned into "peeping Toms" looking in to watch a family having its evening meal, or worse still to watch an elderly and immobile person receive medical and nursing treatment and support. The police have taken an interest and the Human Rights Act may provide some relief - but surely it should never have come to that.

It was a pleasure to welcome Michael Gove to the constituency with his education brief for the party. Together we visited Coombshead School and I think I can say I was quite simply blown over by the quality of the media studies offering. We watched the children put together a live radio broadcast which goes out not just to the school but to local residents in Newton Abbot. The school has a fully equipped broadcasting facility. The printed daily newsheets and the full blown newspaper they produce are very professional and is produced in conjunction with the Western Morning News. Michael was interviewed by one of the students - bringing back fond memories of his early days as a journalist!

Michael and I were also able to visit The Maltings Drop In Centre - and what a professional first class job they do. Yet again it was clear how completely inappropriate the state system is. We met three young girls, all had been made homeless through no fault of their own, all wanting to get on in life and to study and work. As a young person it is financially not possible to work and study if you want a roof over your head. Because of the way housing support works and education grants work, studying is only affordable if you don't work! Where is the logic in that! I had not appreciated what a housing problem there was for youngsters here. Finding accommodation for children and young adults from broken homes is exceedingly difficult, particularly for those that fall into the gap age between being technically a child and technically an adult.

While Richard Younger-Ross did not not attend, I was able to attend the public meeting at Newton Abbot Racecourse concerning the changes in health care provision for those with Mental Health care needs. The St Michael's ward on the current site is to close when the main hospital is relocated from the centre of Newton Abbot to Jetty Marsh. Inpatient care is to be moved to Torbay. I am disgusted that this has only come to light now with no time to make sensible plans for the change and clearly no will to consult. It is simply not acceptable to say that this is a now cast in stone and cannot be changed. There are safeguards set down in legislation which require any such change to be consulted on and Devon County Council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee must be held to account to insist on a thorough investigation into the change with an opportunity to refer any change to The Secretary of State for Health. I will hold them to account!

I am delighted to report that I have recently been appointed an Associate School Governor at Rydon School in Kingsteignton. It is a fabulous school with much to be proud of and I very much look forward to my first meeting next week. I am also as you know a member of the Shadow Senior Council for Devon. Slowly but surely we are working towards developing a body to represent the views of those over 50 so that there is a real voice for change. The constitution is now being developed as well as links with other groups, including I am pleased to say the Junior Council. The gap between the generations seems to have widened over recent years which is a real loss to both. A joint meeting between members of the Senior and the Junior Councils is planned next month.

And of course there has been much more activity besides and I have found myself all over the constituency at various events including Kingskerswell , Abbotskerswell, Ogwell, Haccombe and many more. If I have to chose I would rather "do" than write. My apologies to my regular readers for too long a gap since my last entry, but sometimes you have to make a judgement call - and I believe my time has been better spent making a difference rather than writing about it. I hope you agree.

A week is a long time in Politics!

Not for a long time has politics been so much in the eye of the media, nor has it been so volatile. Ming Campbell's decision to resign as leader of the Liberal Democrats last night was yet another momentous change which will no doubt send the polls into flat spin again with Nick Clegg the front runner to succeed him. This will leave Brown even more exposed as the old man of politics...and these days he really is looking old. And will this influence how Brown performs on the European issue? I think we all expect Mr "bottle" to try to persuade us that all is well across the water and that no red lines have been breached! The man is a wimp and if his party had any sense they would see he is not the man to win the next election - probably in 2010. One way or another Brown's career as PM is not going to be a long one.

But the tragedy of all this is that the real job of running the country seems to be taking second place. What is Mr Brown's vision - and how will "Darling " afford it? I don't think either of them know. Shame on the pair of robbers who stole the Tories tax ideas - not only does their announcement on inheritance tax go against their party's principles - but it was quite simply a media stunt! The new threshold of £600,000 was achievable anyway under existing legislation. Most of us reading the Sunday papers recognise that we are going to be very much worse off under Darling's proposals for Capital Gains Tax, while the private equity target he had in mind is largely unaffected. Is this incompetence, unintelligence or both? These proposals are bad for business, bad for families......and may land up being bad for Labour

While the media remind us of our real woes - a shortage of NHS dentists, inadequate access to GPs, an obesity problem which will be on a par with smoking - what is Brown doing? Lots of promises, little action....just another review! Our health service must be de-politicised. And what of our businesses? The postal strike has really hit home - one of my constituents is having to spend an extra £10,000 a week to meet customer needs. Can the government really just sit on its hands and say - not our problem - Royal Mail have to sort it? Sorry - this sounds just like the approach to Foot and Mouth first time around - a response too late which inflicted lasting damage on the industry. Enterprise has been the great strength of this country but with this type of attitude is it any surprise we are losing our best and brightest abroad?

Its election time!

Well it looks like it just might happen. Gordon Brown has kept us on our toes for weeks and now he may be hoist with his own petard. He needs to call an election this coming week - or call it all off and live with the roller coaster of a recession which seems to be fast approaching. And this time Gordon cannot blame anyone else.

And if he goes to the country he will find that 11 point lead very fragile. Britain has dropped from fourth to tenth in the international competitiveness league tables under Labour. The British Chambers of Commerce now estimate that the cost of new regulations on business under Labour has topped £56 billion. There have been more than 14 new regulations every working day under Labour and the average British company has to spend £14,270 a year implementing new legislation. Under Labour, lending has been rising at a rate of over 10 per cent per Annam, making the debt mountain now greater than Britain's total GDP. And during his ten years as Chancellor, Gordon Brown introduced 111 stealth tax rises, including the abolition of tax credits on pension funds' dividends and increases in stamp duty - can we really forgive and forget that?

This is a man of promises but not principles. There have been nine major reorganisations of the NHS in nine years, estimated to have cost a total of £3 billion - but we now have a health service in total disarray with more administrators than nurses. And now he wants us to believe he will put the NHS first on his priority list for reform! According to a report by UNICEF, the UK is rated the lowest out of 21 OECD countries for child well-being. 1.25 million young people aged 16-24 are not in work or full-time education - almost 20 per cent more than in 1997. And the UK has a higher proportion of its children living in workless households than any other EU country and the highest proportion of lone parents in Europe. Almost half of 11-year olds cannot read, write and add up properly. According to the latest international comparisons by the OECD, the UK has fallen from 8th to 19th for maths results and from 4th to 12th for reading results. Over one third of adults in the UK do not have a basic school-leaving qualification. This is not a family friendly man.

Post offices have been closing at a rate of nearly ten per week under Labour. 4,875 sub-post offices have closed since 1997 and the Government has announced plans to close a further 2,500. 52 per cent of households in rural areas do not have access to a regular bus service. Violent crime has doubled and gun crime has increased by 80 percent and a quarter of all offenders are under 21. There are over half a million illegal immigrants. Under Labour immigration has tripled. Since 2004 over 700,000 arrived from EU Accession States. Can we really be surprised that we have a broken society. Society is not safe in Mr Brown's hands.

Only a Conservative Government will strengthen society, empower individuals and bring back meaning to the words-the family, economic stability and peace. Watch this space, watch David Cameron.....you will be surprised.