"Thanks for inviting me to speak and for so many of you coming along tonight.
I want to cover three things this evening my take on The Conservative Party conference last week, how my campaign is going and the opening of the Bishop Auckland Constituency office.
Conference
I felt this year’s conference was very serious, I think the shadow cabinet and prospective candidates like myself were demonstrating how much work we still have to do and how this conference could be a springboard to the general election
I believe the conference demonstrated the Conservative Party is “Ready for change” –we can deliver but change will be hard and as David Cameron said “we still have a mountain to climb” but the view from the summit will be worth it.
Programmes of policies were outlined and these were around three main areas:
· Fixing broken politics
· Rebuilding our broken economy
· Mending our broken society
There were three crosscutting themes that seemed to underpin everything presented and discussed at the conference these were:
· Social responsibility not state control
· Pro enterprise
· Decentralisation, transparency and accountability
There have been local discussions about what was said about QUANGO’s what I heard was a need for a QUANGO cull which comes from the need to ensure someone is clearly accountable for public money. This would not been all QUANGOs would go from day one but that given the opportunity a Conservative Government would ask:
Is it needed?
Why is it not being delivered by a minister?
Does it need to cost so much?
I had the opportunity to ask two questions at conference, which both received positive responses they were about;
1. Rural Transport
a. Link to other policies employment, education, economy, housing and health
2. Sure start
a. Reaching villages
b. Helping with challenging behaviour
My Campaign
People have asked me why I do not respond to some of the negative comments by other parties, I am running my campaign by being honest and not just attacking other candidates but focusing on policies and issues.
The conference emphasis on “Social Responsibility” is central to my campaign I need to get the message across that conservative want to improve the lives of all, have some great plans to get people back to work, and will become a party that supports the poor. We have to remember this government has widened the gap between the rich and the poor.
“We are all in this together” is another message that came from conference and clearly if I am to win the next election I cannot do it on my own and the Bishop Auckland Conservative Party cannot do it on their own, will need to bring on board people who are not traditional Conservatives and we will all have to work together.
As many of you know my background is in the Public Sector so I have been out and about meeting businesses leaders and people involved in developing enterprise to help me understand their issues I hope to get a member of the shadow cabinet business team up to the area to see thing for themselves. I realise how important effective broadband is to businesses and the general public and how badly served this area is so that is one of the issues I am actively lobbying on.
I know many people would like me to say a Conservative government could reverse the decision about Bishop Auckland Hospitals A&E department but unlike Mark Wilkes the Liberal Democrat Candidate I cannot say that but what I can say is how we can make the best of the mess this government has left by accepting decisions cannot be reversed but emphasising the importance of good services and job opportunities staying in Bishop Auckland and at the same time improving the transport links to the other hospitals.
Office
The main reason we are here tonight is to open this office which will be a campaign base for me in the run up to the election and a place that any of you can use to contact me or come along to offer help."
