27th April 2010

Public meeting

7.00 – 8.00 pm (1900-2000 hours)

Neale Road Day Centre, Neale Road, North Hykeham.

Open to constituents to come and hear me speak and ask questions.

Walking the campaign trail is enjoyable.  I get to do something I often do not get to do without having to come up with a clinical solution – that is talk to people.  So out in the sunshine, talking politics with wavering Labour voters, changing conservatives, reliable LibDems or die hard Torys can be pleasurable.    The cut and thrust as they say of political debate is enjoyable.  Some people are never going to change their views and others enter the debate and can either change their position or persuade me to move on mine.  That is what it is all about.  However, even after all my years working in mental health I do not understand why some people think being rude is going to make a difference and is going to get me to change my position.  Worse still being rude behind my back is sure to backfire as was the case when a Conservative voter in Martin told me that she was not voting for me because she lived elsewhere and always voted Tory.  Then going on to inform her husband; out of as she thought my ear shot; she had conned me.  Sadly for her my ever vigilant daughter over heard every word as she walked back to me having delivered her leaflets in a cul-de-sac.  So she is not going to vote for me.  That leaves around 79,000 of the rest of you who can.

It was Bill Clinton who said “Suppose for example you are a voter. And you have got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you do not think that person can deliver on anything.  Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom would you vote?  Well I am your candidate Y.  I recognise that there some parts of the Liberal Democrats manifesto you may not agree with but on lots of other parts you do agree.  Are you going to vote for one of the tired old parties in the hope that they might do something for you? Or will you vote for me knowing that I have done much in my time in Lincolnshire.  Be that in the Royal College of Nursing, with the teenager cancer charity MattDotCom or as a local protagonist.

Voting for me will get you a local candidate, who has pledged to give up his current post to work as a full time Member of Parliament serving the people of Sleaford and North Hykeham.

Today just a link for you – http://www.libdems.org.uk/our_manifesto.aspx – to the Liberal Democrats Manifesto.

A chance for readers to access a manifesto with costing.  A manifesto that sets out a four point plan for fairness to improve all our lives.

• Fair taxes that put money back in your pocket.
• A fair chance for every child.
• A fair future, creating jobs by making Britain greener.
• A fair deal for you from politicians.

In Sleaford and North Hykeham I am hearing over and over again that there major problems for people who live in the villages in the constituency.  Shops closing, post office closing, schools closing.  Houses are too expensive, fuel is too expensive, food is becoming too expensive.  Buses are not there, broadband is not there, tranquility is not there.

We need to change things so that people living and working in the countryside get a fair deal.  The Liberal Democrats have set out what we believe has to happen to protect and promote the lives of people living in the countryside.  The Liberal Democrats will work with businesses to find ways of reducing red tape so that local businesses can flourish and serve their communities.  We know that  the Post Office and village pubs are at the heart of many communities and have to be supported.  It is disgraceful that 17 post offices have closed in the 10 years 1997 to 2007.  If elected I will work with local people to find ways to re-open as many of these as possible.  Looking for opportunities for a village post office to also be the village store.  To further help people stay in their village the Liberal Democrats will deliver broadband coverage and quality in rural areas.  This will give people the chance to access many services using the internet.  We will give councils greater powers to regulate bus services according to rural community needs.  So that we will not see services disappear as we have in Doddington.  I fail to understand how we take away a bus service that enables young people to access their youth club and then complain the young are hanging around.  Why not reduce the size of the bus or better still talk to the people and ask them what they want.  To support the fact that there is limited public transport we will reduce fuel duty in remote areas.  With a 20% rise in road usage in the past few years we need to look at how we can reduce this.  One way is to put freight back onto the railways.  We need affordable houses for people.  With just over 500 empty houses in the constituency that is 500 families that could be housed without building a single house.  then we need to build affordable housing so that our young people are not forced into the moving away from their families.

Farmers are getting a raw deal from the big supermarkets and we will ensure farmers and consumers both get a fair price for food by creating a legally binding supermarket code, enforced by an independent Food Market Regulator.

If you want to let me know your views on this issue click on this link – http://www.davidhardingprice.co.uk/?page_id=36

A quiet drink in the Tempest where I met some of the locals.  We discussed economy, no surprise there, wages and NHS and cuts.  On the economy we talked about how taxation is skewed in favour of the super rich.  We discussed the Liberal Democrats policy of making the first £10,000 of your income tax free.  I pointed out that this would be paid for by closing tax loopholes and mansion tax.  Next came the topic that had been raised following the publishing of the Incomes Data Services report on Chief Executives salary.  One young man thought I was on £150,000 a year and I explained my salary was not a third of that as a nurse, in fact it was less than £40,000.  His father a retired nurse pointed out that was the truth and Robert said he was grateful to hear a politician speaking the truth.  I have long said; it is now part of Liberal Democrat ethos that all staff in the NHS should get an annual rise of the same financial amount.  So that if the figure was £500 this year, a nurse would see their salary rise by around 2.5% and a Chief Executive by about 0.33%.  As I explained in the Tempest this is a much fairer system, because the loaf of bread in the shop cost about £1 whether you are a nurse or the Chief Executive.  Next we moved on to the cuts and I explained that whichever party forms the next government there will be cuts.  Asked where I would make cuts I pointed out that I would start with the Strategic Health Authorities explaining that it was unlikely this would lead to job losses in Sleaford and North Hykeham but it would result in a major saving in the NHS.  The locals agreed with me that the cuts had to be where it would not affect local services.