December 1st 2014
A week or two after Douglas Carswell then the Conservative MP for Clacton announced he was switching to UKIP I attended a meeting with my Parliamentary colleagues I said that 'despite speaking as another troublesome Eurosceptic backbencher from an East Coast resort beginning with Cl I would not even consider switching to UKIP.'
The reason is simple; not only would I be letting down all those who worked hard to help my election I would be letting down my constituents. It's often said by UKIP supporters 'they tell it like it is, the other parties daren't give us it straight.' Well that's fine if you just want an MP who is all talk, but surely most people want to be represented by someone who not only speaks up for those he or she represents but can also achieve things for the constituency.
As a UKIP MP I would be a voice in the wilderness with little or no access to ministers, unable to lobby and cajole them at Party meetings and in the Division Lobbies, unable to bend their ear about constituency issues.
General Elections are about electing governments that have a coherent set of policies. We are told that older voters are those more attracted to UKIP. I say to them; do you know what their pensions policy is? If your children or grandchildren are struggling to get onto the housing ladder do you know what UKIP's housing policies are? What are their policies for transport, schools, business support, support for the regions I could go on, and I haven't even mentioned their thoughts on privatising the NHS.
The business of government is complex in the extreme; you can be certain that someone who comes along with simple solutions is wrong.
The one certainty about next May's election is that it will result in either David Cameron or Ed Miliband as Prime Minister. One of these men has guided the country through a recession and restored economic stability the other leads an Opposition in chaos and includes former ministers who were in charge when Gordon Brown was driving the economy of the cliff edge.
I come from a working class background having been born in Cleethorpes and spent most of my childhood on a Grimsby council estate, I've experienced redundancy. Whatever background you are from we all want the best for our families and that means job security and an economy that allows business to flourish so that we can finance the public services we all rely on - history tells us it's the Conservatives that achieve this. The election is about the future not the past.
The reason is simple; not only would I be letting down all those who worked hard to help my election I would be letting down my constituents. It's often said by UKIP supporters 'they tell it like it is, the other parties daren't give us it straight.' Well that's fine if you just want an MP who is all talk, but surely most people want to be represented by someone who not only speaks up for those he or she represents but can also achieve things for the constituency.
As a UKIP MP I would be a voice in the wilderness with little or no access to ministers, unable to lobby and cajole them at Party meetings and in the Division Lobbies, unable to bend their ear about constituency issues.
General Elections are about electing governments that have a coherent set of policies. We are told that older voters are those more attracted to UKIP. I say to them; do you know what their pensions policy is? If your children or grandchildren are struggling to get onto the housing ladder do you know what UKIP's housing policies are? What are their policies for transport, schools, business support, support for the regions I could go on, and I haven't even mentioned their thoughts on privatising the NHS.
The business of government is complex in the extreme; you can be certain that someone who comes along with simple solutions is wrong.
The one certainty about next May's election is that it will result in either David Cameron or Ed Miliband as Prime Minister. One of these men has guided the country through a recession and restored economic stability the other leads an Opposition in chaos and includes former ministers who were in charge when Gordon Brown was driving the economy of the cliff edge.
I come from a working class background having been born in Cleethorpes and spent most of my childhood on a Grimsby council estate, I've experienced redundancy. Whatever background you are from we all want the best for our families and that means job security and an economy that allows business to flourish so that we can finance the public services we all rely on - history tells us it's the Conservatives that achieve this. The election is about the future not the past.
And by the way if Europe is your big issue only the Conservatives can give us the referendum the country urgently need.
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