The four of us met again under the Chairmanship of Derek Overfield, with Jill Benthall on the bell. There was only time for the eight questions which had been submitted in advance.
My Labour opponent has put her answers to the questions we were asked on her website and, generously, I give visitors to this website the link
http://sarahevanslabour.blogspot.com/
My answers to the same questions are below - there are not verbatim, as I did not read them out from notes.
My offer to my other two opponents to put on my website what they said is open.
1. Bad news and politicians
I think there is an appetite for honesty. People want to be told the size of the problem, and what needs to be done to put it right. I think Gordon Brown misjudged the mood of the country when, a year ago, he adopted the line of “Labour investment versus Tory cuts” – he dropped when Alastair told him it was unsustainable. People know we are overspending and it has to stop.
By contrast, we were ahead of the game in saying that current levels of borrowing were unsustainable, and public expenditure had to be reduced. No one could accuse us of not telling the electorate of bad news as we advocated a public sector wage freeze next year for all but the lowest paid; asking people to collect their State Retirement Pension a year later; capping public sector pensions; cutting child Trust funds for all but the most vulnerable; and stopping tax credits on those above £50k. We have gone beyond the government in recognising the need for action, and for setting responsible policies. Our preference is to balance the books by reducing public expenditure, whereas the other parties prefer to increase taxation.
Vince was doing OK until recently. Having said that the deficit was the most important, he then came up with a £17b tax cut. It doesn’t help the least well off, because they already pay no tax. And it is a very blunt instrument to help the low paid. It actually helps better off families more. He wants to pay for by it by stopping tax loopholes which the experts say is much more difficult than Vince thinks; by another raid on pension funds which makes savings more difficult; and by putting VAT on new homes – postponing any recovery in housebuilding in its tracks and penalise the first time buyer.
2.Israel/Palestine. I commend Rev Andrew Ashdown, the Team Rector at Knights Enham and Smannell with Enham Alamein for what he has done to raise thew profile of the Palestinians. He has taken many people with him to Palestine, organised a very moving presentation in St Marys Church; and and broughtPalestinians representatives to a meeting with me in House of Commons. He has changed my outlook on this issue.
The Peace Process should be based and concluded on the principle of a two-state solution, with a secure Israel living alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state, with Israel accepted and recognised by her Arab neighbours. The border should be based on the pre 1967 border, and a final status solution will have to cover issues of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements and palestinian refugees. The key lies with US rather than UK to address the abrasive approach of Benjamon Netanyahu. George Mitchell the American Envoy is currently holding talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in hopes of ending the current row over Israeli proposals to build over 1500 new homes in East Jerusalam – the site of what Palestinaians believe should be the capital of their future state. I hope he succeeds where Tony Blair has so far failed, and gets the stalled peace process underway. All settlements built on occupied land are in breach of international law. The immediate imperative is a freeze on Israeli settlement activity – including East Jerusalem. For their part, the Palestinian leaders should recognise Israel, reject violence and accept previous peace agreements
3. Andover. We need to take a strategic view, looking ahead and reposition Andover in the market place. It is an area of high employment, but low wages. (We have many good firms – Britax, Stannah, Lloyds TSB, Simply Health.) We need to win new jobs in growth areas – pharmaceuticals (we lost Shire ten years ago), knowledge and media based industries, information technology - employment areas with above average rather than below average wages.
The imperative is to regenerate Walworth Business Park, which is looking very sad – perhaps in conjunction with a private sector partner, and perhaps with TVBC prepared to sell the freeholds. We must complete the development of Airfield.
Part of this strategy is to engage Andover College and secondary schools to raise further the aspirations and skills of young people in the tow. I applaud what Tim Jackson, Richard Butler, Chris Macshane and Charlie Currie are doing at Andover College, John Hanson Winton and Harroway.
We have to go out and win business. Andover is geographically well-placed with good east-west north south road links, good rail services to London. it is an efficient town free of the congestion that affects other market towns of same size. Property in the town is cheaper than many other Hampshire market towns, with fantastic countryside all round. It has a good local paper and a good local radio station.
The MP the Local Authorities, Andover Vision and the Chamber of Commerce need to sell the town as the economy emerges from recession.
4. Rich and poor. A key solution is to get people who are able to work back into employment. We do this by tackling the deficit, restoring confidence in economic policy, and avoiding Labour's 1% job tax next year. Welfare reform must be part of that strategy. Get Britain Working will leave no one behind on a life of benefit dependency. We will create 400,000 new apprenticeships and training opportunities over two years. Problem goes deeper. School reform – with the pupil premium - wiull help; reform of the prison service, to avoid the revolving door. We need to look at the high marginal tax rates on those on benefit which act as disincentives.
We must make sure that people in the UK get the jobs created by recovery, by restructure further and higher education wit agreater focus on engineering, manufacturing and science.
We must make this country competitive once again in world markets - the place people want to come and invest it.
5. Climate Change. David Cameron has placed quality of life and environmental issues at heart of politics. There a range of issues and it is impossibler to cover them all in 2 minutes. Let me pick out a few .
No to a 3rd runway for Heathrow, and instead an earlier commitment to a new north-south highspeed railway which, unlike the governments proposals, stops at the airport.
A Green Deal – up to £6500 worth of free insulation for your home, paid fopr by utility companies and financial institutions, and recouped by savings in fuel bills over 25 years.
Recycling incentives, like Conservative controlled Windsor and Maidenhead council. They have launched the first UK trial to reward households who recycle by providing vouchers at local shops worth £130 pa. This has led to an increase of 35% in amount of reccykled material collected.
We must not be anti nuclear energy – as the LibDems are - because this won’t enable us to hit carbon reduction targets. We will launch a charging network for electric cars.
On biodiversity, we will introduce a new criminal offence under UK law for the import and possession of illegal timber.
And much more!
6. Equality laws. Equality laws have failed to produce genuine equality – we are a more divided and unequal society than 13 years ago. Income gaps have widened rather than narrowed. There is a role for equality legislation. I believe it wrong to discriminate against someone because of their religion, colour or nationality and it is right to underpin those values with legislation. It is a statement of a tolerant society. Last year, we brought together all the existing equality legislation into one single piece – that is fine.
I am not quite so relaxed about the expensive industry that has grown up around the legislation. We need the right balance on equality and hum,an rights. Last week we saw the case of Zulfar Hussain, a paedophile sentenced for five years for abducting and sexually exploiting two 15 year old girls. He won his right to stay in the UK after claiming his human rights would be breached if he was deported to his native Pakistan. This nereds looking at. The rights of travellers have also at times seemed disproportionate when it comes to the planning system.
7. Family. Important not to denigrate or devalue the work of those who bring up children on their own, as many single parents and widows do.
My view is that best environment in which child can grow up is with a loving mother and a loving father. I believe it is perfectly legitimate for a Conservative government to give a signal of the value of marriage to society as a whole by recognising it in the tax system. We value marriage as an institution that underpins a strong society. The USA, France, Germany, Italy and Spain all recognise marriage on the tax system – as does this government in Inheritance Tax.
A quarter of unmarried parents break up by the time their children are five, compared to one in 12 married parents.
And it is not just tax, but benefits.
Under Labour a couple can earn more if they split up than if they stay together which is absurd. Take a two earner couple in Andover – one on £520 a week and one on £150, with child c are costs of £120 – their income would be 60% higher of they split up. Strong stable families are good for children and good for society.
8. Alcohol abuse. Relaxing the licensing laws was a huge mistake. It has failed to create the continental culture of drinking which we were promised. Police chiefs repeatedly warned about the pressures they would face in terms of policing all hours.
We want a clearer right of veto for councils and police over new licence application. We want it to be aasier to amend existing licence applications. We want to remove the general presumption in favour of a licence application – the applicant would have to show their application would not cause harm. We would allow more people to object – including councillors, rather than those in the “immediate vicinity”
On alcohol, we would stop retailers from selling alcohol below cost, and increase the tax on super-strength beer and cider. We want tough new powers to close down premises which sell alcohol to under age drinkers, where illegal drugs are sold and where there is a persistent disorder problem. We want to allow councils to charge those off licences that stay open after 10.30 and pubs that remain open after midnight, to help with policing and cleaning up costs.
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Promoted by Tracey Kirk on behalf of Sir George Young both at 2 Church Close, Andover,
Hants SP10 1DP
