Speaking in Norfolk

I was the after dinner entertainment at South West Norfolk Conservative Association last night.  Liz Truss is our brilliant candidate there, and she will make a great MP.

My talk was not about all that is wrong with the country (I thought that would merely depress).  Rather I talked about what we must do to fix it.

Posted on 6 February 2010 by Douglas Carswell

Comments

The Stategic Housing Land Availability Assessment is an example of the Central Planning that you so rightly abhor. It seems to be intended to feed a strategy of scattered development.In my view there is one thing local government politicians "must do to fix" this one among many things "wrong with the country". Not withstanding your proper view that "big is bad", they need to fight robustly in favour of concentration of urbanisation AS A PRINCIPLE. I believe that their constituents should not cloud this fundamental point with piecemeal attempts to defend against particular attempts by District, County, Unitary, Regional or National Government to abuse the culture, environment and resources of small rural clusters of population. We should promote a strategy of letting such clusters decide, without external interference, what developments they wish. Any form of Government or local government planning should concern itself only with large scale issues; for example allocating areas for expansion of concentrations of urbanisation. I realise that this will mean that government will have to condemn some rural clusters to absorption within an urban environment. But this would disadvantage fewer people in total than expanding many rural clusters beyond what their inhabitants and infrastructure will tolerate.

Posted on 6 February 2010 10:40 by Ted Waller

At least speaking in person you won't yet have to get CCHQ clearance for what you say. But your posts here seem likely to be constrained to Agitprop.

Posted on 6 February 2010 21:56 by It doesn't add up...

Fixing the country will involve fixing Parliament.

After the general election, the new parliament should establish its sovereignty explicitly and set up its own committee for vetting expenses according its own rules. The current parliament is too discredited to do this, and so as a temporary expedient Legg has some value.

MPs must show that they represent our interests, that they are independent of the Government and of unelected bureaucrats, and that they are therefore worthy of the trust we place in them.

If MPs do not grasp the importance of this when Parliament reconvenes after the General Election, then the Expenses Scandal will not have just done harm to our present parliament, but to all future parliaments.

Iain Martin has an excellent blog about this at http://blogs.wsj.com/iainmartin/2010/02/06/how-the-rotten-parliament-sold-our-birthright/

Posted on 7 February 2010 09:30 by Chris Rose

FROM: Ian Pennell, Nenthall, ALSTON, Cumbria. CA9 3LQ

7th February 2010

Dear Sir Douglas Carswell

As a committed Conservative Member I do believe that it is a Conservative Government that Britain needs. Unfortunately we need to convince the electorate of that, and after David Cameron's apparent "wobbles" in PMQs on tax policies for married couples, swift action is needed by the Conservative Leadership to shore up our position.

Sir, you will know about the Taxpayers Alliance. A couple of years back they published a book entitled "The Bumper Book of Government Waste", in which they identified up to £100 billion that could be cut from public expenditure without harming public services. Why on earth are the Conservatives not making full use of that.

That is money which we can use to show we are serious about cutting Government Debt, to show that all our policies are well funded with sound money and to provide tens of millions in Britain with some red Tory meat- Tax Cuts, that will give most of the population a stronger reason to vote for us.

With the General Election possibly as soon as April 15th, we really need to up our game, and fast! You must tell Sir David Cameron to get this TPA book to help produce a far more formidable looking narrative to reassure and win over the electorate. We also need to seriously think about offering a referendum on EU Membership to the electorate with the recommendation of a "No" vote. The EU is perhaps the biggest threat to this country's future, and it also stifles our businesses up in red tape. We need to instruct the Leadership to be more decisive on this issue- and fast.

Time is running out, the threat of a Labour resurgence has not gone away! We must deal with it before it is too late.

Best Regards.

Ian Pennell

Posted on 7 February 2010 12:00 by Ian Pennell

With over 1,000 Empty homes listed on Tendring Councils Official list we do not need more homes built. If this is typical then we simply need better management by everyone to manage all our resources much more effectively.
This applies specially to those who we vote for & those charged and paid by us to be OUR
"Civil SERVANTS".

More Value for Our Money!

Posted on 8 February 2010 08:17 by Eric of Walton

There are an estimated 1,000 unused properties in Tendring Area which poses the question as to what proportion could be used for Housing?
There must be potential for the provision of low cost rentals and even the prospect of renting to buy thus enbaling young people who are desperately trying to get "a foot on the property ladder"
Needless to say the properties in question do require more investigations as to the circumstances of their vacation but here is a scheme ripe for enterprise so let it begin!

Posted on 8 February 2010 16:00 by Michael Gould

How many of the 1,000 plus offically listed EMPTY HOMES in Tendring (Harwich Constituency) are actually owned by companies as part of their "Land Bank"?

Surely this a National, Moral & Financial issue (scandal) waiting to explode?

Posted on 9 February 2010 07:58 by Eric of Walton

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