The most exciting manifesto in a generation
Directly elected police chiefs. The power to sack your MP. Radical localism. Popular initiative. Local referenda. Select committee confirmation hearings for all quango chiefs and to approve budgets..... and on it goes.
Today David Cameron unveils the boldest, most exciting party manifesto in a generation.
Why do I say that? Not from obsequiousness.
Rather, it’s because so many of these ideas started life in The Plan – 12-months to renew Britain, published by Daniel Hannan and me a couple of years ago. It's almost a decade since we first published a pamphlet calling for directly elected police chiefs (Direct Democracy – empowering people to make their lives better).
Don’t just vote Conservative to oust this rotten Labour government. Vote Conservative for a government worth having - one which will put our country back on track.
Posted on 13 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Labour rejects capitalism ...
... according to Allister Heath.
One of the top economic commentators has written an extraordinarily critical review of the Labour manifesto. Read it here.
Posted on 13 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Labour wants to merge police forces
Labour’s manifesto appears to propose police force mergers to create new regional police forces. Although, naturally, they don’t quite put it quite like that.
Here in Essex, we fought hard a couple of years ago to retain our Essex county force - and defeat government plans for a regionalised force.
Yet Labour’s manifesto published today seems to revive this idea, with promises that your local police force could be “taken over” by the neighbouring force.
Hummmm ….
Having constabularies “taken over” by neighbouring constabularies sounds like one way of describing regionalisation, to me. And to whom would a regional police force answer? A regional assembly?
Centralisation and consolidation are always going to be attractive answers to remote officials – no matter what the question. Instead we need to retain our county forces, but make those who run local police forces made more outwardly accountable to local people.
Rather than merge Essex police into a new regional police force, we need a directly elected police commissioner for Essex to give us the kind of policing local people want – and to free our local police officers to get on with their job free from red tape.
Are we more likely to get the kind of policing we want here in Essex if we elect our own Essex police commissioner, or if our police are merged into an East of England force? It's not difficult.
Posted on 12 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Petrol prices hitting older folk
Petrol is now an extraordinary £1.22 per litre in these parts of Essex. And shockingly, every time you fill up the tank, most of what you pay is paid straight to the Treasury as tax.
Knocking on doors these past few days, I've been struck by a brewing resentment at the high petrol prices. It seems many of those hardest hit are those on fixed incomes and pensions.
Conservative plans - first put forward by the great Andrew Lilico - to introduce a fuel duty "stabiliser" can't come in soon enough. It would mean that the amount we paid in tax fell when oil prices are high - and it could mean petrol prices down by as much as 10p per litre, according to ConservativeHome.
About time too!
Posted on 12 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Campaigning dot com
Is the internet changing the way we fight election campaigns?
Well here in Essex, it’s certainly helping us achieve some of the more traditional campaigning tasks.
Take posters, for example. For decades, once an election is called, candidates try to get as many of their posters up as possible. The biggest challenge, however, is normally finding enough sites fast enough to put up a poster in someones window or front garden. Candidates often find it easier to put them in fields - lots of space, only one or two folks' permission needed.
So, a couple of days ago, I blogged (and emailed) asking who might want a poster.
As of last night, I’d literally hundreds of offers, and in almost half the streets in the constituency. You can see a few of the results above …..
UPDATE: A couple of hundred posters went up just today - with more people asking for one in the front garden or window all the time!
Posted on 10 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Holland-on-Sea today
I'm door knocking in Holland-on-Sea, and then on to Frinton .....
Spring is here and the sky is Tory blue.
Posted on 9 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Jaywick - district council by-election
Has a Labour collapse boosted the BNP in Jaywick?
Today saw a district council by-election in Jaywick / Tudor ward in my constituency. So I’ve been up since 6am, when we had a “dawn raid” leaflet drop!
Despite hard work and a great local candidate, the Conservatives were the underdogs throughout.
First, we’ve not held this district council seat since at least the early 1970s. Second, at the last set of district council elections in 2007, we got a mere 19% of the vote – finishing third.
Traditionally Labour, will Jaywick vote Labour today?
On doorstep after doorstep, I’ve heard the same message. Labour is now so unpopular, so reviled, their traditional base of working families is deserting them.
Yet with six candidates standing in today's contest, including the BNP, this could make for a troubling outcome.
If the BNP does win in Jaywick today, it will be because traditional Labour voters have abandoned them.
UPDATE: We almost won - just 5 votes short! In what ought to be Labour's safestest wards in the district, they just cling on....
Posted on 8 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Campaign Diary
With the General Election now underway, my blog is going to become more of a campaign diary – with a bit of comment on the national picture thrown in from time to time.
I’ll relay any interesting stories from the front line of politics, as I campaign in my constituency.
Today, for example, I’m focusing on Tudor Green and Jaywick ward, where we happen to have a district council by-election.
It’s a part of my constituency that has not returned a Conservative to the district council in at least 40 years - so it should be interesting …..
Posted on 8 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
Recall is key to cleaning up Westminster
After only a few months in Westminster, I clocked that something was wrong. Too much comfort and indolence? Something a bit smug, self-satisfied, or self-regarding?....
I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Yet I wondered if it had anything to do with the fact that many MPs seem to come from "safe seats" - and therefore answer inward to SW1, rather than outward to the voters.
Pondering the problem, I proposed two answers; open primaries to select candidates and a right of recall to fired self-serving politicians.
Recall means allowing local people trigger a by election to sack an MP who fails to deliver. Or who makes promises, but doesn't keep them. Or who is indolent, lazy, or fiddles their expenses.
Having adopted open primaries, I'm delighted that today we're announcing a right of recall. By letting local people trigger by-elections against bad 'uns, MPs might just start to do what diligent folk in the real world do; under promise, then over deliver. It's the fact many often do the opposite that gives politics such a bad name.
Will we see vexatious attempts to trigger recall votes against some hard working, honest MPs? Perhaps initially. But we know from what happened when we had a judicially sanctioned recall election in 1997, voters tend to punish those who trigger recall votes without just cause
.
Posted on 7 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell
It's time for change
We need change in Britain. Please help make it happen.
And if you live in Clacton, Frinton, Walton, St Osyth, Jaywick, Thorpe, Weeley, Kirby or Holland-on-Sea - and are one of the thousands of local people who read this blog - let me know if you would like to display a poster like this in your front garden or window?
Posted on 6 April 2010 by Douglas Carswell